158 more West Midlands ambulance staff employed to help with winter pressures as flu season arrives five weeks early
West Midlands Ambulance Service has taken on more than 158 extra staff in a bid to better cope with “perfect storm” winter pressures.
The West Midlands Ambulance Service foundation trust's operations director Nathan Hudson said the service was in a strong position to deal with the expected challenges after setting in motion planning for the winter as far as 12 months ago.
There will be 158 additional workers, some of whom will be student paramedics.
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The move comes as NHS bosses reveal that the influenza season has arrived around five weeks earlier than usual, resulting in severe illness affecting mainly older adults, but with school pupils and young adults also becoming unwell.
Mr Hudson said: "We have increased our staffing ahead of winter so that we have more ambulances to get to patients. After successful recruitment campaigning we have several hundred more student paramedics who will be on the road over the Christmas and New Year period.
