East of England Ambulance Service close to declaring major incident

The East of England Ambulance Service has been under extreme pressure since July

The East of England Ambulance Service (EEAS) has declared it is on the brink of a major incident following "lengthy" handover delays at hospitals.

The service has also received a spike in 999 calls and said it moved to "major incident standby" on Saturday night "to better direct our resources".

The alert warns the NHS to prepare for a possibility of a major incident.

"We experienced increased pressure across the Eastern region over the weekend," a spokesman added.

The service covers Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Hertfordshire, Norfolk, Suffolk and Essex.

Since July, EEAS has operated under the highest of the four escalation levels used by ambulance services, ranging from level one meaning "steady state" through to moderate, severe and lastly, extreme pressure.

In August, an elderly man died in the back of an ambulance after waiting six hours to be admitted to the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital.

At the time, EEAS said it was with the patient within eight minutes of the 999 call.

The hospital said he remained in an ambulance due to "significant pressure on our emergency department and inpatient wards".