'Black Friday' marks the busiest day of the year for the East of England Ambulance Services.

http://scrbliv.me/2437511

Control rooms across the region will be run off their feet today, as it's expected to be the busiest day of the year for the East of England Ambulance Service.

The service has warned that lower priority calls may be waiting longer to receive assistance, given the volume of calls they will receive.

The huge spike in demand comes given the colder weather, and those celebrating the holiday season.

Last year, the services answered almost 3,200 calls on Black Friday.

That equates to one call every 30 seconds.

An EEAST spokesman said: 'We have had a very busy start to winter and expect another busy day on Black Friday.

'Not all of these were life-threatening, so we are urging people to dial 111 if they need medical care and it is not emergency.'

This year, the service will once more be running a Twitterthon to highlight the issues they face.

The #24HoursinEOE will be used by the EEAST Ambulance twitter account, who will be live tweeting updates over the next 24 hours.

The East of England Ambulance service, said: 'Our 24-hour Twitterthon in the east of England will highlight the amazing work of staff and volunteers and the type and sheer volume of 999 calls we receive.'

In a statement on their website, the EEAST added: 'This time we are aiming to expand on last year's event by covering more areas of work from across EEAST including non-emergency and support services and giving a glimpse at the pressures we face during the summer.'