There has been a 32% increase in calls for ambulances in six years

Doctors say ambulances are over-stretched and non-emergency patients who need to be admitted to hospital are left to wait.

Ambulances have to respond quicker and within a guaranteed time to 999 calls.

But the head of the Welsh Ambulance NHS Trust has urged GPs to think again as it would cause major disruption.

As a doctor I have a duty to ensure my patient gets appropriate care within an appropriate time Dr Ian Millington

The GPs claim ambulances are often parked up outside A&E departments at Singleton, Morriston and Neath and Port Talbot with patients still on board as there are not enough resources to admit them.

The knock-on effect, they say, is non-emergency patients who needed to be taken to hospital were left waiting at home or in doctors' surgeries.

The Morgannwg Local Medical Committee, made up of doctors from the region, has put forward a motion to the Welsh LMC conference on Saturday calling for members to use the 999 system rather than pre-book vehicles.

Swansea based GP Dr Ian Millington, secretary of Morgannwg LMC, said: "It's really a way of using the system to guarantee that patients get appropriate care.

Guaranteed time

"What we are trying to arrive it is where we can guarantee a time for a patient to arrive at hospital. Increasingly that's becoming difficult if we use the normal control room number.

"At the moment the ambulance service is not obliged to give us a guarantee from the control room.

It would be unprofessional and negligent of GPs to take such action which would clearly put the lives of people at risk Don Page

"We are talking about ill patients where maybe we would request an ambulance within an hour and then we are being asked at the end of that can we extend the time further."

But Don Page, Chief Executive of the Welsh Ambulance Service NHS Trust, warned if the GPs carried out their threat it would have dire consequences.

"To undertake the threatened action will result in the emergency ambulance service coming to a complete standstill and unable to respond to real emergencies and life threatening calls," he said.

"It would be unprofessional and negligent of GPs to take such action which would clearly put the lives of people at risk.

"I understand the concerns of GPs but I would urge them to step back and consider the dangers that such action would cause."