South East Coast Ambulance Service declares 'critical incident' amid NHS pressure

South East Coast Ambulance Service has declared a critical incident.

The trust which covers Brighton and Hove, East Sussex, West Sussex, Kent, Surrey and North East Hampshire said it decided to declare a critical incident on Monday "following a period of more than a week of sustained pressure across our 999 and 111 services, significantly impacting on our ability to respond to patients".

It comes as as NHS services around the country face "unprecedented" pressure.

SECAmb is one of three ambulance trusts across the country to declare the incident.

In a statement SECAmb said: We would like to thank all our staff and volunteers for their hard work and commitment in recent days in what continue to be extremely challenging circumstances.

"We urge the public to continue to call 999 in life-threatening emergencies as we prioritise our response to our most seriously ill and injured patients.

"People can continue to support us by seeking help and advice from alternatives including via NHS 111 Online at 111.nhs.uk, their own GP or by speaking to a pharmacist.

"Declaring a Critical Incident provides us with additional oversight and enables us to explore options including mutual aid, while focusing all efforts on frontline patient care.

"The situation will be kept under close review."

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