PEOPLE are being urged to use health services correctly over the Easter weekend, after the ambulance service received more than 2,600 calls to Essex alone last year.

The Easter Bank Holiday weekend is one of the busiest holiday weekends of the year, and the ambulance service, hospitals and primary care trusts are gearing up to cope with the extra demand.

The East of England Ambulance Service has scheduled extra resources for the weekend to cope with any rise in calls.

Figures from the service for Essex last year show that on Good Friday there were 604 calls, Saturday 733, Easter Sunday 655 and Bank Holiday Monday 642.

Neil Storey, interim locality chief operating officer for Essex, said: "We want to help people to access the most appropriate NHS services available so that we are able to respond quickly to the more urgent and life threatening incidents.

"Our message to people is to have a happy and healthy break by thinking ahead. This is not to discourage people who need help in an urgent or emergency situation such as having a suspected heart attack, complaining of chest pains, unconsciousness, suffering from a deep wound or head injury or struggling to breathe.

"However, when people with minor complaints call 999, this puts staff under pressure to ensure urgent or emergency care is delivered."