AMBULANCES across Hereford and Worcester have dealt with a record number of emergency calls during the past month, it was revealed on Friday.

Steve McGuinness, director of operations with the service, said there were "serious concerns" over the situation.

He said Thursday's "backing-up" was not unheard of and the service was having to change the way it operated.

"When something like this happens we have to call ambulances in from across the county," said Mr McGuinness.

"It does affect the services because we have to make sure the two counties are covered. We have to move our vehicles around the county. A situation like this has a great impact on the service. It obviously affects matters if three ambulances are not in operation."

Mr McGuinness said managers were first made aware of Thursday's problem at noon.

The crisis ended at around 7pm on Thursday night.

Staff immediately tried to rectify the situation by making sure the rest of the county's ambulances were moved.

"Things got really critical at around 4pm," he said.

"An incident like this is a big concern - not just to us but to the whole of the health service.

"In July we had 3,200 emergency calls and they were genuine. We've tried to find a reason for the record number of calls, but we can't.

"To be honest, we don't really expect this kind of influx in the summer months - there is no explanation for it. "We can't predict the number of calls we're going to get so we have to deal with it as best we can."