As well as offering its main building to the North West Ambulance Service, staff and students at the City of Liverpool College have been doing their bit during the coronavirus crisis. Tony McDonough reports

Facilities at the City of Liverpool College’s main city centre campus building were used to train hundreds of new 999 call operators during the coronavirus crisis.

The college donated its Learning Exchange site to support North West Ambulance Service (NWAS) during the COVID-19 epidemic to train new members of staff to deal with increasing numbers of 999 calls.

NWAS has boosted its workforce to support the region throughout the pandemic, bringing more than 450 new workers to the frontline in recent weeks in response to demand.

An additional 187 staff are in place to handle 999 calls across the Liverpool, Greater Manchester and Preston emergency operations centres, while 150 additional NHS 111 clinicians, health and service advisors have joined the team at the Liverpool and Greater Manchester contact centres.

Dan Ainsworth, strategic head of emergency operations centres, NWAS, said: “We are extremely grateful to The City of Liverpool College for allowing us to use their space to train up additional staff to handle emergency calls.”

Recruitment and training of new starters is continuing in NHS 111, with 142 staff expected to have joined the service by August, ready to support members of the public with urgent health concerns.

Temporary training centres, including at the Learning Exchange, have been set up to help train the workers, which include student paramedics, apprentices, staff redeployed from other parts of the trust, and some agency workers.

In addition to this donation, staff at The City of Liverpool College have also been working hard to do their bit to support the NHS and key workers during the crisis. Milly Foster, health and safety advisor at the college has gone above and beyond to support the region’s NHS staff. 

Following a plea from Arrowe Park hospital on social media, Milly rounded up all of the much-needed personal protective equipment available at the college such as gloves and masks, across departments such as hair and beauty, construction and motor vehicle, to be donated to staff at the hospital.

Students have also been getting involved to do their bit. Lara Malone, who is currently studying on a UAL extended diploma in fashion, has been putting her skills to good use and is making much-needed face masks, while Jing Ye, who is studying for an extended diploma in art and design is currently making scrubs to be donated to the NHS and frontline key workers.  

Elaine Bowker, principal and chief executive at The City of Liverpool College, said: “It’s an incredibly difficult time for everyone and it’s so important that we are able to support our NHS and key workers, in any way we can.

“We’re fortunate to have the facilities available to us, to be able to donate resources, doing our bit to help ease the pressure on the frontline.”