Paramedic students from UCLan join the fight against coronavirus pandemic

Paramedic students undertaking training Pic: UCLan

More students studying health at the University of Central Lancashire are heading to the hospital front line in the battle against coronavirus.

Paramedic students have been called up to work with the North West Ambulance Service.

More than 100 of the medical students are to provide assistance and support for patients.

The students are to work within the NHs111 service and being emergency care assistants alongside ambulance crews.

They join many UCLan staff who are leaving their teaching posts to return to their previous roles in the NHS.

Previous physiotherapy, occupational therapy and operating department practice staff are all returning to the NHS.

Around 40 physiotherapy and occupational therapy final year students have also joined an emergency temporary register service.

UCLan’s Principal Lecturer and Divisional Lead for the School of Sport and Health Sciences, Dr Anne Milston, said: “We are really proud and supportive of our staff and students that are providing such vital assistance to the NHS at this important time.

“The skills that are that our physiotherapy and occupational therapy staff can provide will clearly be very valuable and will hopefully make a positive difference to the services available to patients. Rehabilitation starts within ICU and Allied Health Professionals enabling people to recover and return home is vital at this time.

“We’re also pleased that several of our paramedic students will be providing such important support to North West Ambulance Service when the need is clearly at its greatest.”

It follows news that more than 300 nursing and medical students at UCLan are to finish their final year studies early and be sent to hospitals across Lancashire.

A total of 2,096 people have been diagnosed with coronavirus in Lancashire, the fourth highest total for a place in the UK, and 72 people have died from Covid-19 at Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.