North West Army deployed to help support ambulance service

The North West army are stepping up their game in tackling the pandemic as part of the biggest UK military operation in decades.

Over the next week around 120 military personnel are being deployed to help the North West Ambulance Service cope with mounting pressure over the pandemic.

Soldiers will mainly be driving ambulances in non-emergencies like transporting patients leaving hospital to go back home or into care.

The support for the ambulance service is expected to be in place for several weeks.

Hundreds of troops have already been helping to rollout mass testing as well as vaccinating people across the region.

Colonel Russell Miller is the Commander for the North West Legion, he said: " The soldiers have families too and they have concerns, but this is why we join.

"Men and women join the military for a challenge, and in this case, they are genuinely looking after their own communities.

"It's a national effort and I think you have an ethos in the military that when the nation needs support, that's what we're there for.

"It's one of the military roles we have. It's helping out other government departments with blue light services or whoever needs it in peacetime when the demand is so high that the normal amount of resources that the NHS has, for example, is maybe just not quite enough."

Colonel Miller said it was too early to comment on any future plans to ramp up military support even more amid fears over the new variants, but said they were always on standby: "If we find for example that the critical care beds again start to fill up and the pressure is on the NHS then the military can step up."