MORE than a dozen ambulances were spotted queuing outside Southend hospital yesterday as the county’s ambulance service stood on the precipice of a “major incident”.

Ambulances were seen queuing to disembark patients on Monday morning after the East of England Ambulance Service NHS Trust (EAST) declared it was on “major incident standby” on Saturday night.

Patients have been urged to only call 999 for an ambulance for “life-threatening illness or injuries”.

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A senior doctor at Mid and South NHS Trust (MSE, which runs Basildon and Southend hospitals, has since said the situation is improving – but those wishing to visit A&E should only do so if their lives are in danger.

An East of England Ambulance Service spokesperson said:" The NHS is currently facing incredibly high demand and we are working very closely with our partners to speed up handover delays at hospitals to improve care for our patients. 

"We experienced increased pressure across the eastern region over the weekend caused by lengthy handover delays at hospitals and 999 demand.

"We moved to major incident standby on Saturday night and have remained at that level of escalation to enable us to better direct our resources to focus on patient care." 

Long ambulance queues outside the hospital have become a common sight in the last 10 months.

A photograph taken last month from a hospital ward showed 20 ambulances queuing outside.

In May, Southend West MP Anna Firth reported seeing 15 ambulances outside the hospital when she was there for a charity event.

And on Monday, images sahred on social media showed queues of at least 13 ambulances outside the hospital.

Councillor Matt Dent said: "We have seen services stretched to breaking point here in Southend this weekend.

"The simple answer is that the our ambulance and NHS services are massively underfunded and we need proper government funding if we are going to see them operating at an acceptable level.

"Staff are working there hardest to keep everything running, but they need a helping hand from the governemnt."

Dr Ronan Fenton, system medical director for MSE, said: “This weekend saw increased pressures on health services across the region. We have taken action, as a healthcare system, to bring down delays so that our ambulance crews can get back to answering calls from the community.  

“While the position has since improved, members of the public can help by using services reviewing self care advice on the NHS website, seeking treatment and advice from their local pharmacies or by calling 111 out of hours for various ailments and injuries to keep A&E for urgent, life-threatening situations.”