The ambulance service that covers Kent declared a critical incident overnight.

South East Coast Ambulance lost their Computer Aided Dispatch system and had to move to their back-up telephones.

A spokesperson said: “While we are working hard with our IT providers to find a solution to the issue, and have implemented well-rehearsed contingency plans, the loss of the CAD, along with the high demand we are facing across our region tonight, is placing significant pressure on our services.

“We continue answer calls and respond to patients but urge people to only call 999 in the event of a serious emergency and to make use of services including NHS 111 Online for help and advice.

“We would like to thank our staff and volunteers for their hard work and commitment at this challenging time and assure the public that we are doing everything we can to resolve the issue as quickly as possible.”

But at 10am executive director of operations Emma Williams confirmed the system was back up and running.

She said “We continue to experience significant IT system issues, which are affecting our Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD) and which are preventing our systems from working fully.

“We are pleased that this morning, we have been able to move back onto our CAD, operating it as a standalone system at our East Emergency Operations Centre in Coxheath, Kent. We are continuing to work closely with our IT providers on fully resolving the issues.

“I would like to thank all our staff and volunteers who have been working so incredibly hard to manage the impact of this, while also trying to resolve the issues as quickly as possible.

“In light of the fact we have been able to return to the use of our CAD in a limited form, going forward, the incident will be managed as an internal Business Continuity Incident (BCI).

“We would like to thank the public for their ongoing support and urge them to continue to help us manage the demand placed upon us by only calling 999 in the event of a serious emergency.”