200 Armed Forces personnel to support NHS in London amidst staff shortage
In order to help hospitals tackle the shortage of staff and attend the increasing number of patients suffering from Omicron variant of Coronavirus (COVID-19), 200 Armed Forces Personnel have been deployed to support National Health Services (NHS) in London.
Of these 200 Armed Forces personnel, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) will provide 40 Defence medics and 160 general duty personnel to NHS. The service personnel will remain on task for 3 weeks.
These Armed Forces Personnel will be divided into 40 teams with each team having 1 medic and 4 general duties personnel. They will be distributed flexibly to ensure support is targeted towards the areas where the need is greatest.
Speaking on the occasion, the Secretary of State for Defence, U.K. – Ben Wallace said, “The men and women of our Armed Forces are once again stepping up to support their dedicated colleagues in the NHS, as they work hand-in-hand to protect the nation from COVID-19. They have shown their worth time and again throughout this pandemic, whether driving ambulances, administering vaccines or supporting patients in hospital and they should be proud of their contribution to this truly national effort.”
Taking it to twitter, the MoD tweeted,
200 personnel have been made available to support the NHS across London.@BWallaceMP “our Armed Forces are once again stepping up to support their dedicated colleagues in the NHS as they work hand-in-hand to protect the nation from Covid.”https://t.co/qX3JbTYyl2
— Ministry of Defence 🇬🇧 (@DefenceHQ) January 7, 2022
The military medics will assist NHS staff with patient care and General duty personnel will support with tasks such as maintaining stocks, checking in patients on arrival and conducting basic checks.
Th MoD will also provide 32 military co-responders to provide additional capacity to the South Central Ambulance Service (SCAS). Those deployed will work alongside SCAS paramedics and are expected to be on task until the end of March 2022.
The Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, U.K. – Sajid Javid tweeted, “Thank you to our brilliant armed forces who are stepping forward to support the health service in London through this difficult winter period.”
The support is being provided through the Military Aid to the Civil Authorities (MACA) process and is in addition to more than 1,000 Armed Forces personnel who are already deployed across the U.K. to support the response to the pandemic.
Military personnel are assisting ambulance trusts in the devolved nations, with 313 available to support the Welsh Ambulance Service NHS Trust (WAST) and 96 continuing to support the Scottish Ambulance Service. More than 1,000 servicemen and women have also already been made available to support the vaccine booster programme, including 730 in England, 221 in Scotland and 98 in Wales.
