South Central Ambulance Service is declaring a major incident at 20:00 on 26 June 2026. This is due to continued pressure despite significant actions being taken since declaring the critical incident.
Declaring a major incident allows us to enact a national mutual aid request and we now have initial support arriving from ambulance services outside the heatwave area. We are also extending the working with Local Resilience Forums in Hampshire and Thames Valley.
Contributing factors include:
- Continued increase call demand and acuity of patient needs.
- Increased response times across all categories of calls.
- Continued pressure on other NHS services, diverting some demand to us and extending handover times at emergency departments.
Actions we are taking building on critical incident response:
- Enacted national mutual aid plan
- Calling in additional staff to fill shifts in the coming days
- Maximising the use of the over 800 volunteer responders
- Utilising Hampshire voluntary sector support to help with staff welfare
- Maximising fleet availability across all vehicle types
- Reviewing how we use people and vehicles differently to get the most resources on the road
- Cancelling non-essential activities for all operational staff
- Back-office departments taking on other tasks helping contact centres and road crews
Duncan Robertson, Chief Paramedic said: “Moving to major incident is a recognition of how difficult the position is. Our teams in contact centres and on the road are doing everything they can to get to people as quickly as possible. But in the last 24 hours the position has unfortunately worsened.
“We continue to prioritise patients with the most serious injuries and illnesses, but recognise that response times are longer than they should be.
“There are several things we would ask the public to help us with, both to avoid needing care, and what to do if help is required.”
Three things people can do to avoid needing our help:
- The heat is particularly difficult for older people, the very young, and people with existing health conditions. If you can check in regularly with friends, family and neighbours to help them cope with the heat.
- People in manual jobs, particularly working outdoors, are also more at risk of heatstroke and heat exhaustion. Employers need to take people’s safety really seriously and accommodate for the heat.
- Young people who’ve finished exams and others out enjoying the weather, sometime push things too far and take risks. Please don’t overdo it and be very careful around water – there’s still a very real risk of cold-water shock.
If people do need medical help, three things we ask are:
- Only use 999 for serious and life-threatening issues. Call 111 if you’re not sure and be ready for it taking a little longer to answer.
- If people call 999, we may redirect them to other services or offer over the phone clinical advice only. Please accept that advice and treat our staff with respect.
- For people waiting for an ambulance, please only call back if the patient’s condition gets worse or if an ambulance is no longer needed. We cannot give estimated arrival times.
We expect the pressure to remain for several days even after the heat starts to subside. We will continue taking all possible actions to return to normal response times as quickly as possible.