Army called in to support Yorkshire Ambulance Service as staffing pressure mounts amid Omicron rise

Members of the army have been brought in to support the ambulance service in North Yorkshire amid staffing pressures due to rising Covid-related absences.

Forty military personnel were due to start training today with the Yorkshire Ambulance Service NHS Trust (YAS) and are due to begin working with patients within two weeks.

They will learn to drive ambulances as well as provide basic life support - freeing up medical staff to attend serious cases.

Nick Smith, Executive Director of Operations, said using the help of military personnel had always been a part of resilience training.

He said: “We will be able to use military personnel to work alongside our staff, enabling us to support patients and get people the treatment they need sooner.

“This, in turn, will free up our staff to attend to serious and life-threatening cases.

“Military staff will work alongside a YAS colleague and attend minor cases, hospital transfers and discharges only.”

The armed forces staff will be trained to similar standards of the trust’s patient transport staff who have also been supporting the emergency service throughout the pandemic.

Working with the trust for a number of weeks, the recruits will be assisting with transporting patients with less urgent needs, enabling the trust to make more efficient use of its emergency resources.

Mr Smith added he wanted to reassure people, in spite of the challenges, thetrust's emergency service remained "fully operational".

The trust is urging people to only call 999 in a genuine emergency and consider other options for less serious health problems.