major incident declared in Monday which left the North West Ambulance Service (NWAS) struggling to keep up with calls, the Greater Manchester mayor and former shadow health secretary admitted he had not seen such a crisis before peak winter pressures.
He said it reminded him of the swine flu pandemic of late 2009, which he recalled had put strain on the NHS - but not until January.Monday's incident, which left paramedics queuing with patients in hospital corridors and up to 12 ambulances lining up outside some A&E departments, is currently being investigated by the North West Ambulance Service.Between midday at 8pm on Monday, the service handled 2,266 calls to 999 - 36 per cent more than last week - around 15 per cent of which were Covid.