Increase on demand for Scas in hot weather

South Central Ambulance Service (Scas) is urging people to only call 999 in an emergency as Sunday saw them deal with 2,666 calls - an increase on a daily average of 1,800. Yesterday they received 2,735 calls.

In one week, they have seen their demand increase by an average of 29 per cent.

A spokesman said: ‘We are aware patients who would have contacted us concerning less serious conditions may have waited longer than we anticipated as we prioritised our staff and vehicles to attend more serious, life-threatening emergencies. We would like to apologise to those patients.

‘We are anticipating there will be delays reaching some patients over the next few days, and to reduce these, we are increasing the number of ambulances we have.’

An ambulance should be called if a person has chest pain, breathing difficulties, severe blood loss, are unconscious, drowning or fitting.