AMBULANCE Service bosses in Dorset are urging people to think twice before calling 999 this bank holiday weekend after experiencing their busiest week for three years.

South Western Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust (SWASFT) responded to almost 20,000 incidents during the week of August 10-16.

It has dealt with around 75,000 incidents during the past four weeks, an increase of 6.4 per cent compared to the same period last year.

SWASFT is reminding people to only call 999 in a medical emergency and to call 111 for less serious medical incidents.

A spokesman for SWASFT: said: "The demand on our service has been going up and up since lockdown was eased at the start of July. Although demand reduced slightly last week, we faced very real challenges of dealing with an exceptional week during the heatwave earlier this month.

"To put that week into context, we have only had six other weeks in the past three years with those kinds of activity levels. All of those weeks were in the month of December when we traditionally receive high levels of activity associated with winter pressures.

"Please think twice before calling 999 this bank holiday weekend and ask yourself: 'Is this a real emergency?'"

People should always call 999 if someone has stopped breathing, has severe chest pain, is choking, may be having a stroke, has serious blood loss, or is unconscious.