North West Ambulance Service forced to declare 'major incident' after 2,200 calls in just eight hours
hereThe major incident has now been stood down, but the service has urged people to only call about life threatening, or potentially life threatening conditions. Anyone with a non-emergency is being asked to check their symptoms with 111 online before calling.Earlier in the evening, unions agreed that staff would forgo breaks if needed, in order to keep up with the demand on the service.NWAS Unison branch secretary Jeff Gorman earlier described the situation as 'extreme' and said crews have never dealt with a situation like this before.