East of England Ambulance warns of extreme pressure due to high number of calls

Ambulances are being delayed as the East of England Ambulance Service warns of extreme pressure due to high call volumes.

The service is urging people to call wisely, and only in serious situations.

To help it better respond to calls, it has increased its escalation state across the region.

An East of England Ambulance Service spokesperson said: "The NHS is currently facing incredibly high demand and we are working very closely with our partners to speed up handover delays at hospitals to improve care for our patients.

"We experienced increased pressure across the Eastern region over the weekend caused by lengthy handover delays at hospitals and 999 demand.

"We moved to major incident standby on Saturday night and have remained at that level of escalation to enable us to better direct our resources to focus on patient care."