By DAILY MAIL REPORTER
Last updated at 2:43 PM on 15th December 2010
Ambulance bosses have told patients they will have to make to make their own way to hospital because their vehicles are too busy to attend all emergency call-outs.
North West Ambulance Service (NWAS) said it has issued the instructions to its patients after a staggering rise in emergency calls and because cases of life-threatening illnesses are up almost a third on this time last year.
NWAS covers a vast swathe of the North West, taking in Cumbria, Lancashire, Greater Manchester, Cheshire and Merseyside and says its paramedics have struggled to cope.
Overstretched: NWAS has been tied up with a huge rise in 999 calls
Self-service: Patients are being asked to make their own way to hospitals such as Blackpool Victoria by NWAS
It has meant less seriously ill patients have had to wait up to three hours for 999 crews to arrive.
Now Darren Hurrell, chief executive of the NWAS has instructed people in the NHS Trust catchment area: 'If your life is not in danger and we won’t get to you for several hours is there someone else you can call - your son-in-law, your brother - to get a lift to hospital?'
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1338829/North-West-Ambulance-Service-tells-patients-make-way-hospital.html#ixzz18O4bsNtB
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