MORE than 50 new frontline staff are to be recruited in Lancashire to deal with the 'crisis' in paramedic care.

The moves comes as the North West Ambulance Trust (NWAS) exclusively revealed to the Lancashire Telegraph plans to take on 500 frontline staff across the north west.

The large scale recruitment drive follows an unprecedented increase in 999 calls, which saw paramedic response times across Lancashire hit rock bottom at the end of last year.

In East Lancashire ambulance chiefs are looking for 14 emergency medical technicians. There are currently 241 frontline staff in East Lancashire, including 132 paramedics.

Last month 77.62 per cent of life-threatening cases across East Lancashire were attended within eight minutes, beating the statutory target of 75 per cent for the first time since October.

Across the north west 270 new posts will be created and another 230 people recruited to fill existing positions.

The majority of the posts will be paramedics and emergency medical technicians, with 50 new urgent care staff ,who deal with non-emergencies and 70 extra emergency medical dispatchers, who deal with the phone calls, recruited by the end of the year.

NWAS currently has more than 3,500 frontline workers, with about 30 current vacancies.

In January the NWAS was the worst performing trust in England for the second consecutive month with just 65 per cent of 999 calls responded to within the target.

Ged Blezard, Deputy Director of Operations at NWAS, said: “The Trust experienced an unprecedented increase in 999 calls for the most serious, life-threatening incidents last year which meant that we didn’t get to our patients as quickly as we’d have liked.

"We are working on a number of initiatives to keep patients with less serious conditions out of hospitals and ambulances available for those who need them most.

"The Trust has also recently received funding for hundreds of additional frontline members and is due to start a huge recruitment drive imminently."

Russ McLean, chair of Pennine Lancashire Patient Voices Group said: "It's wonderful news both for the organisation and for the patients. Obviously I am aware of the difficulties they have had in the recent past so let's hope taking on these additional members of staff will put them on the road to recovery." But he cautioned: "I hope they are foot soldiers, people on the ground with medical grounding...I would hope it dramatically improves the response rate and attendance figures. And let's not forget it's giving 500 people jobs."

He also said he felt ambulance staff and paramedics were not being paid enough.

Last year paramedics across the North West attended just 68.4 per cent of emergency cases within their target response time, but ambulance bosses cite an unprecedented 10.5 per cent spike in 999 calls in 2014 for the drop in their performance.

Ambulance bosses have said its poor performance figures was partly due to the delay in handing over patients to hospitals which should last no longer than 15 minutes.

Earlier this year the Lancashire Telegraph reported that one in five life-threatening 999 calls in the county had been attended by junior staff rather than a paramedic, compared to 3.6 per cent across the North West. In Pendle there were claims that on at least two occasions emergency calls had been transferred to an answering machine.

Lisa Ryan, of the GMB union which represents ambulance workers, said the move was very much welcomed.

MP for Pendle Andrew Stephenson, who also volunteers as a Community First Responder, said: "I am encouraged by the steps that are being taken to address response times."

And Ribble Valley MP Nigel Evans described it as 'staggeringly good news.'