A health minister has dismissed concerns over the impact of the heatwave on NHS services in Greater Manchester, saying there is no "magical way of avoiding such pressures".
It comes after the North West Ambulance Service (NWAS) confirmed that it had been moved to the highest alert level. NWAS now stands at Resource Escalation Action Plan (REAP) level four.
Level four 'indicates a potential for failures' within ambulances services as they try to cope with 'extreme pressure', according to the national NHS framework. Read more: Andy Burnham says 'we need to start demanding a General Election' The escalation comes as patients struggle with heat-related illnesses, the M.E.N.
understands. Raising the matter in the Commons, Worsley MP Barbara Keeley referenced a Manchester Evening News article reporting that NWAS had raised its operational pressure levels to the highest alert. "A&E departments at the Royal Bolton and Stepping Hill hospitals have admitted they're extremely busy with long queues of ambulances", she said. "It's 12 years of Conservative mismanagement and neglect that has left these services, of which my constituents rely, so vulnerable.