A group of 11 paramedics from Poland have arrived in West Cumbria as new recruits for the North West Ambulance Service.

They joined at the start of last month and are currently on a 12-week induction course based at Energus in Lillyhall before being deployed to Egremont, Distington and Flimby stations.

A further 15 will be welcomed in January and will also be based in north Cumbria.

Head of clinical education John Gillespie said: "This is a great boost to the numbers of paramedics in the county.

"There is a national shortage of qualified paramedics in the UK and while we are recruiting from within, this takes time and there is an urgent need for paramedics now.

"Paramedics in Poland have a greater degree of autonomy than UK paramedics and have a much larger drug formulary that we do here. They will however work according to NWAS protocols and procedures."

NWAS added that the paramedics recruited have excellent clinical skills. They also speak very good English and NWAS is assisting them with the local dialects.

And they have been assigned a mentor from within the trust who is helping them with all aspects of moving to another country such as accommodation, opening bank accounts and family support.

All new recruits will undertake a period of observational shifts and work with another paramedic in the first few weeks of arriving on station to give them some extra operational support.

They will also work closely with advance paramedics and senior paramedics.

This is the first group of international paramedics into the area although NWAS has successfully recruited Finnish and Polish paramedics in the Greater Manchester area.