Nick Triggle
Health Correspondent

Demand has risen sharply in the past decade. 

There were 9.4m calls to the ambulance service last year – nearly treble what it was a decade ago. 

Why is this? The ageing population is certainly a factor, but paramedics point to two other reasons – this generation being more likely to call an ambulance than previous ones and wider pressures in the health service which mean when they drop patients at hospital they are increasingly facing delays.    

Our health reporter Sharon Barbour is in a control room in the North East and is seeing first hand the delays to get to patients. 

South East Coast ambulance crews may have been due a break, but the job calls.

Our health reporter Nikki Fox is out with ambulance crews from the East of England Ambulance Service NHS Trust this morning. 

Nick Triggle
Health Correspondent

Direct comparisons between the UK’s 13 ambulance services are difficult because the targets and systems used vary.

But it seems pressures are greatest in the Northern Ireland, South East Coast and East Midlands services where nearly half of life-threatening calls are not reached in eight minutes.

Catherine Smyth, our reporter in Northern Ireland, was at the control centre early this morning as the 12-hour shift changed.  

“It was a busy enough night for the 14 staff," she said. " Since their shift started at half seven last night they've dealt with 196 emergency calls - 57 of those were the highest priority, category A. 

"There are 17 active emergencies across Northern Ireland at the moment and a crew has just been despatched to the west of NI to deal with a cardiac arrest.” 

One of the other things facing our ambulance services is people making calls when they don't need an ambulance.

Have a listen to this one...

Our reporter Nikki Fox says the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust is now on black alert.

This means the hospital’s A&E does not have enough beds to cope with the number of people coming in.

“They are short of 70 beds at the moment,” she said. “Yesterday there were 25 delays over 30 minutes.”

Nick Triggle
Health Correspondent

The day of ambulance coverage by the BBC comes at a crucial time for services. The system is under unprecedented strain.

The number of 999 calls has nearly trebled in the past decade – and that is making it more difficult for crews to respond quickly.

New ways of handling calls and responding to them are being piloted across the UK. They involve only prioritising only the most immediately life-threatening for a quick eight-minute response.

Good morning and welcome to our coverage looking at how the UK's ambulance services are close to breaking point.

Our team of correspondents will be travelling across the country, visiting control rooms where 999 calls are handled, and joining ambulance crews to see how tough things are on the frontline.