North West graduates leading the way to fill NHS shortage
Video report by ITV Granada Reports correspondent Elaine Willcox
Newly qualified graduate apprentices from the North West are helping to fill a skills shortage in the NHS.
The country's first cohort of students have just graduated from the University of Bolton working with a number NHS trusts in Greater Manchester and St Helens and Knowsley.
They offered students the chance to qualify as Operating Department Practitioners (ODPs) by completing a three year Degree Apprenticeship while continuing to work in the regions hospitals.
Almost two dozen students completed the degree course and have all secured ODPs positions in the NHS.
What are ODPs?
ODPs are medical professionals working mainly in hospital operating departments.
During the Covid pandemic they were described by colleagues as the 'unsung heroes' working in critical and intensive care looking after Covid patients.
They are often the first person a patient will see after they wake from a coma or surgery.
There are almost 15,000 ODPs working on the NHS compared to 600,000 nurses.
The Degree Apprenticeship meant they could continue working for four days a week and spend a day studying at university.
Leona Radcliffe, 28, was a theatre support worker before starting the ODP Degree Apprenticeship. She completed her 'on the job training' at the Royal Bolton Hospital.
She will now specialise in anaesthetics, but admitted at first the equipment and ventilators 'terrified her' at first.
Lisa Harrison is a mother of three and a grandmother from Wigan who has worked in the Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh NHS trust for 15 years before studying.
She says without this course she would not have been able to achieve her dream of a degree.
Karla Parr is an ODP at Whiston Hospital and says 'you couldn't write a script like this' training in this field of medicine during a pandemic.
She says the course allows trusts to invest in their staff and continue their training.
She is proud to have been involved and said the group helped to support each other during some tough times in the last two years with Covid reducing staff numbers.
Dr Carl Oakden, who works in Anaesthetics and Intensive Care Medicine said it has been a 'harrowing time for many experienced professionals in the NHS' and what this first cohort from Bolton University have achieved is 'remarkable'.
He says the ODP profession may be little known, it is not a name that trips off the tongue but they play a vital role.
He says this innovative course is helping to fill a skills shortage in the NHS and training the next generation of clinicians.