South West ambulance service critical incident stood down

Leaders have warned "the service still remains under significant pressure"

A critical incident declared by the south-west of England's ambulance service has been stood down, but it remains under "significant pressure".

South Western Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust (SWASFT) declared the incident on 28 December due to 700 calls waiting to be dispatched.

Rich Marlow, strategic commander, said it had ended following a review, but the service was still under pressure.

He asked people to continue to use 999 appropriately.

"Following a review of key criteria, including the number of patients waiting for an ambulance, the command structure at SWASFT has taken the decision to stand down the critical incident which has been in place since Wednesday 28 December," Mr Marlow said.

"Whilst this is positive news I cannot stress enough that the service still remains under significant pressure and it is therefore crucial that we maintain our focus over the coming days and weeks to prevent further pressure on the service."

He added: "To ensure that our control rooms teams and emergency responders can continue to respond to patients where there is a life or death emergency, I would urge everyone to continue using 999 appropriately as many people have done over the weekend."

Follow BBC News South West on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Send your story ideas to [e-mail].