CORONAVIRUS: West Mids ambulance chiefs urge former staff to return

WEST Midlands Ambulance Service has issued an appeal today, Monday, to registered paramedics who live in the region to re-join it and help treat the increasing numbers of coronavirus patients.

The ambulance service covers Stratford and Warwick districts as part of its patch and has already significantly increased its capacity to deal with Covid-19 patients – but it now wants to go further still to ensure it can provide care to patients in their hour of need.

As a result, it is looking for any paramedics who retired within the last two years or are working in the private sector for the likes of events medical companies who would like to come back into the NHS family to get in touch.

It has also had former members of staff who went on a career break to look after children, offering to come back, which the service has welcomed.

Trust chief executive, Anthony Marsh, said: “Over the last couple of years, we know that several hundred staff have retired from our service after giving many years of outstanding care to the public.

“We would like those paramedics to consider returning to WMAS so that we can increase the quality and amount of care that we can provide the public in these challenging times.

“Equally, we have already had a number of paramedics who normally provide medical cover at events such as horse racing come to us to offer their services, for which we are very grateful.

“We want to boost the number of paramedics we have available as much as possible, so re-employing former paramedics and those who work in the private sector who would like to join us makes sense.

"Across our country we have seen how much we are all pulling together, from the astonishing scene last Thursday during ‘the big clap’ through to the amazing generosity of companies and individuals towards our staff; now we want to go one step further by increasing the number of paramedics to boost our ability to care for patients even further.

“For those who have retired; I know how much the time you spent with us meant to you; many of you have told me that when we have spoken. I wouldn’t ask you to re-join if I didn’t think it was the right thing for the public of the West Midlands and our country.”

Those who would like to join the service either on a short term or long term basis are invited to apply via NHS Jobs (www.jobs.nhs.uk) and look out for job reference: 217-VN488-19-20