The London Ambulance Service have issued the following message with regard to the current coronavirus outbreak –

With the outbreak of Coronavirus, we are currently seeing unprecedented demand for both our 999 and 111 services. Last week in particular, saw nearly 8,000 calls come into our 999 centres for four days in a row, the highest volume of calls per day we have ever seen. 

A significant proportion of calls we are seeing come into our 999 and 111 control centres are from people that could have used the website nhs.uk/coronavirus. Londoners who are more vulnerable and may not have access to the internet are struggling to get through to our life-saving assistance as a result.

We would be really appreciative if you could share our call to action; asking people to visit nhs.uk/coronavirus rather than calling 111 and to only call 999 in a genuine life-threatening emergency.

We have recently launched our national recruitment drive, calling on former London Ambulance Service staff to get in touch if they’re able to help us in these times of extreme demand.