Around 150 military personnel have been drafted in to support the North West Ambulance Service (NWAS) cope with rising staff shortages due to COVID.
The NWAS says the the military will be available to respond to patients whose need is not urgent, and who often have longer waits when the service is busy, to allow it to “make more efficient use” of its emergency resources, while helping out the wider NHS system.
The cohort of personnel will begin training on the 11 January, and will continue to work with the NWAS for a number of weeks.
The military personnel will receive NWAS training in driving ambulances, manual handling, kit familiarisation, and basic life support – which the Service says is similar to the standards of the trust’s patient transport staff, who have also been supporting the emergency service throughout the pandemic.
This new draft follows what the NWAS says was a “very successful partnership” last winter, when the military was deployed to more than 4,600 non-life-threatening 999 incidents, including assisting with transportation of patients between healthcare sites on a predicted 1,700 occasions.
ADVERTISEMENT
Feedback from those who worked with the military personnel was overwhelmingly positive, the NWAS revealed.
Around 150 military personnel have been drafted in to support the North West Ambulance Service / Credit: Facebook (NWAS Trust)
“It’s no secret that the ambulance service, along with the NHS as a whole, has been under extreme pressure for several months,” said Ged Blezard – Director of Operations at the NWAS.
ADVERTISEMENT
“Now we are also experiencing high numbers of staff absences due to confirmed COVID-19 cases and isolation, with around 25% of the workforce currently affected [and so] as part of our resilience planning, we can make a request to the military for support and feel now is the right time to put the arrangements in place.
The ambulance service and the military are joining forces to support people in the North West.🤝https://t.co/g4ePipPvQl
— North West Ambulance Service (@NWAmbulance) January 7, 2022
“We worked alongside the military last February and March, and it allows us to have more of our vehicles on the road, getting people the treatment they need sooner.
“This frees up emergency ambulances to attend to urgent, life-threatening cases.”
ADVERTISEMENT
Ged added that taking this “timely intervention” to increase its resources now means the NWAS can carry on doing saving lives, while still providing extra support for its staff and patients during another “challenging period”.
Hundreds of staff at four Greater Manchester hospitals to strike AGAIN next week
Emily Sergeant
Another round of strikes has been called at a handful of major Greater Manchester hospitals.
Amid ongoing disputes following the first set of strikes at the end of last month, it has now been announced that more than 350 Northern Care Alliance Foundation Trust (NCA) employees – including nurses, clinical support workers and housekeepers – who are members of the union UNISON will once again walk out for three days next week.
According to the union, the dispute centres on the NCA’s use of an outside agency called NHS Professionals (NHSP) to manage overtime.
When covering staff shortages, workers are entitled to time-and-a-half pay – however in some cases, staff earn less than they would on a normal shift, and some have even been missing out on more than £80 per shift, the union added.
Operating theatre staff were previously on picket lines in June, and although an option to resolve the row was initially tabled by NCA bosses, this has now fallen through.
Hundreds of staff at four of Greater Manchester’s hospitals are set to strike next week / Credit: Stephen Andrews (via Unsplash)
This means that staff at Salford Royal Hospital, Royal Oldham Hospital, Rochdale Infirmary, and Fairfield Hospital in Bury are walking out next week on Monday 14, Tuesday 15, and Thursday 17 September.
The union’s North West regional organiser, Kevin Dolan, said the trust had given ‘no indication’ that it’s willing to re-enter negotiations, adding that operating theatre services were ‘chronically under-staffed’ and staff were choosing to work extra shifts to cover shortages.
Ahead of the August strikes, the trust declared a critical incident to help it secure extra support and keep urgent surgery running, while also announcing that some procedures would have to be postponed.
Understandably, some disruption is expected at each of the hospitals on strike days.
But Gertie Nic Philib, who is the chief people and strategy officer at the Northern Care Alliance, said that the trust will do ‘everything we can to minimise the impact on patients’ and ‘maintain high standards of care and quality at all times.’
“We also have contingency plans in place for emergency situations,” they concluded.
Featured Image – Pxhere
News
Stockport man jailed for life after kidnapping and sexually assaulting teenage girl
Emily Sergeant
A Stockport man has been sentenced to life in prison after kidnapping and sexually assaulting a teenage girl on her way home from the library.
Paul Sharpe has been sentenced to life imprisonment with an eight-year minimum term in prison after being convicted of a number of offences when subjected a teenage girl to what police called a ‘terrifying ordeal’ that lasted several hours back in May 2026.
Greater Manchester Police (GMP) confirmed that the victim had been studying at Sale Library before beginning her journey home with friends at around 5:50pm and contacting her parents at 6:10pm to let them know she was on her way.
Twenty minutes later, she spoke to her boyfriend on the phone and said she was approximately five minutes away from home, but that her phone battery was about to die.
This was the last contact received from the victim that evening.
While walking along Bradgate Road in Altrincham, the victim noticed a grey Ford parked nearby and a man wearing a high-visibility jacket pressing doorbells in the area.
As she walked past, Sharpe approached her from behind, placed her in a headlock and threatened to stab her if she did not get into his vehicle.
Concerned that their daughter had not returned home, the victim’s family contacted police at 9:22pm to report her missing, and officers immediately launched an investigation to locate her.
Over the next several hours, the victim was subjected to and placed in a number of terrifying situations.
Sharpe drove the victim to several locations across Greater Manchester and Cheshire, before police located and arrested him at around 3:40am on 19 May 2026.
Following his arrested, 56-year-old Sharpe was convicted of kidnap, committing an offence with intent to commit a sexual offence, sexual assault, engaging in sexual activity in the presence of a child, threats with a bladed article, and administering a noxious substance with intent to injure, annoy or aggrieve.
“This was a terrifying ordeal for a young girl who was simply making her way home,” explained Detective Inspector Karl Perry, from GMP’s Criminal Investigation Department.
“Sharpe targeted a vulnerable victim, subjected her to hours of fear and intimidation, and went on to sexually assault her.
“The victim has shown immense courage throughout the investigation and court proceedings. Through her bravery and actions, she no doubt made it harder for Sharpe to carry out whatever acts he had planned.”
Emily Sergeant -
7th January 2022 
