THE ambulance trust’s student paramedic recruitment drive has seen three applications for every post advertised.

The service is looking for more staff to improve response times and putting more frontline ambulances on the road.

Last week it offered 400 paid student placements – and by yesterday had received, 1,200 applications, ahead of deadline.

Chief executive Dr Anthony Marsh said: “I’m delighted by the huge number of people who want to take up this fantastic opportunity to help people. This shows great faith in the service and what we can do to help patients.

We know we need more staff so we can improve the care we provide to patients and this programme will take us a long way down that road. It will help us reach our goal of having a paramedic on every vehicle, which will undoubtedly increase the quality of patient care.”

The service is also hiring qualified technicians and paramedics.

For details, visit jobs.nhs.uk