The ambulance service is urging people to use it wisely as it responds to around three calls every minute during the New Year period.

SECamb is reminding the public to only call 999 if someone is facing a serious or life-threatening emergency as it expects demand to remain high for the first weekend in 2025.

The trust answered more than 3,000 calls to 999 on Boxing Day alone and handled around 6,000 calls over the weekend.

At peak times across New Year’s Eve and into New Year’s Day, paramedics responded to around three calls every minute.

The NHS 111 service is also expected to stay busy over the new year with handlers picking up highs of 8,000 messages on peak days.

SECAmb’s chief executive Simon Weldon said: “As a service, we will do everything we can to ensure we are providing the best possible care for our patients by working in close partnership with the wider NHS and partner organisations across our region.

“I would like to thank every colleague who has worked so hard throughout the past 12 months to respond to the needs of our patients.

“Thank you to everyone who has spent time away from their family and friends to look after our communities over Christmas and New Year.

“I would also like to thank all our volunteers. They provide vital support, day in, and day out, to our frontline teams, freely giving up their time to make their communities safer.

“I am certain that 2025 will see our teams, whatever their role across our organisation, continue to provide compassionate care to their local population.”

KentOnline previously spoke to staff members working at SECamb’s emergency operations centre in Medway who said they had been responding to an influx of calls throughout cold and flu season.

They said as many pharmacies and GPs have restricted opening hours in the limbo between Christmas and New Year, they only become busier.

Senior emergency medical advisor, Holly Doye, said: “People tend to lean on our service more when they’re unable to access what they need from other services.

“A lot of the public do not really understand how we work as a service so it can be really difficult to calm down callers who are very distressed and do not understand the process of how we triage our patients.

“Using the ambulance service does not mean you are going to get seen quicker in hospital, it is often far safer for someone to be waiting in A&E rather than waiting hours at home for an ambulance if they are able to make their way.”

If someone is not facing a serious or life-threatening emergency, SECamb is asking people to remember the alternatives to 999 like speaking to a pharmacist or making use of NHS 111.

It has also issued a series of tips to help people to stay safe during the winter months including having a flu or COVID booster vaccine, keeping houses warm and checking medications are up to date.