London Ambulance Service has had to replace hardware, after a failure that forced paramedics to use pen and paper instead of computers. They then had to pass messages using radio.

Having to revert to the old way of doing things has slowed operations down, Mark Lione, a paramedic, told The Evening Standard:

"We have gone back to basics on the road," he said.

"Usually the calls are automatically dispatched to the nearest ambulance, but we have gone back to the system we used five years ago, which will inevitably take longer."