A SHORTAGE of ambulance paramedics is not a North-East problem, but a national problem, health chiefs say.

The North East Ambulance Service (NEAS), which is seeking to recruit 118 new paramedics, said a shortage was also being reflected at other ambulance trusts across the country.

The service has faced criticism from the Rural Ambulance Monitoring Group, based in the Durham Dales, which says problems with recruitment, retention of staff and long-term sickness among existing staff over many years have not been addressed.

The group has also described as “very difficult to comprehend” the decision to remove some front line paramedics and place them into new welfare management roles and complained that ambulance performance data is being withheld.

Speaking at the NEAS’s annual general meeting at Teesside University on Thursday (September 24), chairman Ash Winter said it had been a “challenging year” against performance and financial targets.

Despite this, clinical director Joanne Baxter said the quality of care provided by the service remained among the highest in the country.

Between April 2014 and March this year it answered 1.1m emergency and 111 calls, while its ambulances responded to 302,687 incidents.

New chief executive Yvonne Ormston spoke about “cultural change” in the organisation and said: “Looking after our staff improves patient outcomes.”

She admitted that the service’s priority was to recruit more paramedics.

A spokeswoman for the NEAS said: “The shortage of paramedics is a national issue faced by ambulance trusts across the country.

“We currently have 118 paramedic vacancies across the North-East, which we are working hard to address by recruiting locally, nationally and, potentially, internationally.

“In addition, there are hundreds of student paramedics locally, which we hope to attract when they have qualified.

“The new Emergency Care Clinical Manager (ECCM) role aims to give more support to frontline staff.

“However, in light of the paramedic shortage, only 22 of our 51 ECCMs are undertaking their role 100 per cent of the time.

“The rest will divide their time between their new role and operational shifts and will only be fully released when we are confident we have enough staff in place.

“Since the ECCMs have been in place, we have seen a reduction in the number of staff leaving the service.”