While most people wind down from work this time of year - for those taking 999 and 111 calls - it’s a different story.

From delivering babies, providing life-saving instructions or advising the public on how to get help for their coughs and colds, a day at the Medway Get Ready Centre is rarely dull for the 780 people who work there.

And although pharmacies and GPs may have restricted opening hours in the limbo between Christmas and New Year, the emergency operations centre only becomes busier.

One person taking the 999 calls is senior emergency medical advisor, Holly Doye, who says she has been responding to an influx of calls throughout cold and flu season.

“People tend to lean on our service more when they’re unable to access what they need from other services,” she says.

As part of her role, Holly will triage the patient and calls will be categorised depending on the emergency situation.

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

“Often that can result in verbal abuse and a lot of resistance which can make it difficult for us to get the right help to them but obviously it can take a toll on us as well.”

The 20-year-old believes some of this may stem from a lack of education about which pathway is the best to use or a misunderstanding that ringing the ambulance service means a patient may get seen quicker in hospital.

She said: “Using the ambulance service doesn’t mean you’re going to get seen quicker in hospital, it’s 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.”

To ease the pressure between the public and the emergency services, Holly thinks it is important people remember the call handler is a real person who is trying to do “the best thing for you”.

“People call the ambulance service thinking it’s the best help for them,” she says, “but actually in a lot of incidents we have the ability to refer them to services that are more appropriate and will get them better help than an emergency ambulance would be for them.”

This is echoed by clinical safety navigator Chandra Elder who understands the strains on the service better than most, having worked in the NHS for almost 30 years.

She says many believe the ambulance service isn’t fit for purpose, hasn’t got enough resources or money, but that “it’s inappropriate use of the NHS that’s causing a problem.”

“If you use it effectively, we’ve got resources that will cover what we need to cover,” she adds.

Often in her role, the 57-year-old finds that many people become frustrated at having to wait for a clinical call-back, not realising that colds, flu, diarrhoea and vomiting can be managed by local pharmacies.

To help improve education about when to use the 999-emergency line compared to other services, Chandra thinks there needs to be a larger information campaign to target specific audiences.

She said “An emergency ambulance is there for emergencies. A medical emergency is classed as someone who has got airway, breathing or circulation compromise, so what we are looking at is road traffic accidents, respiratory arrest, cardiac arrest, people with fractures or broken bones, that’s what the ambulance service is here to deal with.

“Use the service wisely because when you are calling us inappropriately, patients are dying.”

Dispatching the calls across Kent, Polgate and Hastings in East Sussex, is Krissie Williams who has been in the role for over eight years.

During her time here she says “it’s definitely got busier” with more people depending on the 999 and 111 service.

She said: “As a service it is a bit of a struggle sometimes managing demand on resources on the room and resources out on the road with meeting the number of calls that we get through and the expectations people have on the health service as a whole.

“When you call 999 and get taken to hospital it doesn’t mean you’ll be seen any faster, it’s not a short cut to the queue.”

But, despite the challenges she faces, Krissie says she enjoys what she does, adding: “I think everybody here has joined the job to make a difference and help people.”

And when a call isn’t an emergency but is urgent instead, it’s people like Regan Lloyd, who works as a health advisor in the 111-call centre, who is helping to take one of the hundreds of daily calls.

She steps in when GPs aren’t able to help or if there’s something more urgent you need assistance with, which can’t wait until the next day.

The 27-year-old said: “You can call us and we can assess and refer you to the most appropriate places and services, within the right time frame for your symptoms.”

Particularly during this time of year, Regan says many find themselves without their repeat prescription and a large part of her time revolves around these conversations.

She said: “We are always here to help, and we do get a lot of people call in and say ‘oh I don’t want to bother you’ but that’s what we’re here for.

“With repeat prescriptions, the earlier you can get them through your GP, that is always beneficial on us.”

Westley Shaw is the operating unit manager at the emergency operations centre, looking after the leadership team and the physical Make Ready Centre.

He has been a paramedic since 2015 and has noted a large increase in demand for services, particularly out-of-hours.

He said: “I think it’s taken quite a bit of time for 111 to finally find its place and settle in, but now I think it’s really effective in what it does, but it suffers from the same issues around demand during peak times for its services.

“Before the public call 999 we would always ask that they think about what’s happening and whether it’s an emergency and remind them they can call 111 for more urgent cases that don’t require an emergency response.”

Although his current role sees him directly look after the staff not patients, Westley enjoys the fact he is able to see the control teams “do brilliant things” and save lives.

“There’s always something nice that’s going on that you can take home with you and remind you why you do this job,” the 31-year-old adds.

The message from the control centre is clear, they are here for emergencies and urgent needs. As demand increases, it’s more important than ever to ensure you are making the distinction.

“We’re obviously here and available throughout the winter period,” Westley adds, “but, we would ask you to think, ‘is this a life-threatening emergency and do you require the skills and expertise of ambulance staff?’

“If the answer is no, there’s probably something else. There’s only a finite number of emergency ambulances and obviously we want to make sure they are available for the people who really need them the most.”