THE ambulance service which covers Somerset is close to declaring “major incident” status due to what it describes as an “unprecedented” volume of calls over the Christmas period.

Neil Le Chevalier, South Western Ambulance NHS Trust (SWAST) director, said the demand on services during the four public holidays from Christmas Day to Sunday had put a huge strain on the service, and he urged people only to dial 999 in a genuine life-threatening emergency.

The NHS defines a ‘major incident’ as: "Any occurrence that presents serious threat to the health of the community, disruption to the service or causes (or is likely to cause) such numbers or types of casualties as to require special arrangements to be implemented by hospitals, ambulance trusts or other acute or community provider organisations."

Mr Le Chevalier told the BBC this morning that SWAST was currently on ‘standby’ for a major incident, which is classed as one level of seriousness below major incident status.  

A post on the SWAST website yesterday said: “Please only call 999 and 111 for life-threatening emergencies and urgent medical help. All NHS services, including 999 and NHS111, are experiencing extremely high demand today.

“If you are suffering a life-threatening emergency or need urgent medical help then please call.

“However, if not, please think about the other healthcare options available, such as self-care or visiting a pharmacy, or please consider whether your problem could wait until your own GP surgery reopens on Monday.

“Please be aware that even if you call 999, unless you are suffering a life-threatening emergency, you may not receive an emergency ambulance.

“Your call will be triaged by an experienced senior clinician and you will be given the most appropriate advice for your condition. If when calling NHS111 with an urgent medical problem, you receive a message saying there is a technical failure and get disconnected, please retry.

“There is no technical failure it is simply due to demand. Please be reassured that your call will be answered as soon as possible.”