A NERVE centre to make sure hospitals and emergency services can cope with a Christmas upsurge of calls is being set up in Bolton.

The base will monitor the whole of Greater Manchester to look out for strains on health services and tackle them before they become serious.

Staff at the communications centre, to be based in the ambulance service's training centre at Ladybridge Hall, will watch pressures on intensive care and high dependency hospital beds, 999 calls and out-of-hours GP demand.

Greater Manchester Ambulance Service (GMAS) chiefs hope the centre will build on the success of a similar initiative during the busy millennium celebrations.

The centre won national praise from the Department of Health's Winter Emergency Services Team (WEST) for its success in helping the region's services cope with their busiest ever period.

This time the centre will be open from Monday, December 18 until the end of January.

GMAS has strengthened its operation with an extra 23 vehicles in operation over the festive season, with an extra 20 staff.

For the first time the service's patient transport staff will link up with paramedics to introduce a new "intermediate" tier to deal with cases classed as slightly less urgent than emergencies.

Patient transport staff have been trained in emergency driving skills to prepare them for this work.

GMAS mechanics and fleet managers will be on stand-by throughout the critical period to make sure vehicles remain in action and St John Ambulance will give back up, along with Bolton Mountain Rescue Team.

New Year was the ambulance service's busiest ever period last year, with 2,500 calls flooding in within 24 hours.

GMAS chief executive John Burnside said: "Last year we faced the highest recorded activity levels in our history and we came through stronger than ever.

"Extra investment in our infrastructure has been put in the best possible position to face the challenges which lie ahead."