People are being urged not to dial 999 for an ambulance service to turn them at hospital’s A&E department unless they have a genuine medical emergency.

The request from the Royal Bournemouth and Poole Hospitals came as they experienced the high demand for their services.

A trust spokeswoman informed that a large number of patients have been admitted to hospitals over last week, which has led to shortage of beds across the hospitals.
 
She said, “We have also seen a high number of patients accessing emergency departments and calling 999 for conditions which were not emergencies. We would urge people to use NHS Direct, their pharmacy, GP, or the out of hours service if it is not an emergency.”

She suggested that people should avoid hospitals if they have common flu sickness or diarrheal symptoms whenever possible.

The latest figures showed that the levels of people seeing GPs for flu-like illness appear to be peaking.

Flu is still circulating and health experts urge those people who are at higher risk group to have their vaccines as soon as possible which is the best method in the next couple of weeks.