MORE than 1,500 members of the public stepped forward within 24 hours to respond to a call for volunteers and temporary roles with the Welsh Ambulance Service as it manages its response to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Individuals from across Wales, including past and retired staff, have registered their interest in a variety of roles across the service following an appeal by the Trust last week.

Applications are now closed and the sifting process has begun.

Claire Vaughan, the Trust’s Executive Director of Workforce and Organisational Development, said: “We are absolutely delighted by the response we received to our online appeal.

“This fantastic response will help us to boost capacity within our workforce during this most challenging of times.

“Our workforce team is working really hard to sift the applications, skill-matching, seeking relevant checks and pairing them geographically to our needs – and so we ask for everyone’s patience now as this work is done.

“We sincerely thank everyone who put themselves forward in this most testing of times, and will seek to contact them soon with an update in response to their kind offer."