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UK Ambulance Service to Recruit Over 200 Poles to Address Staff Shortage

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South Central Ambulance Service (SCAS) has begun international recruitment in Poland for paramedics in attempt to fill more than 200 posts, according to Michelle Archer, the SCAS spokeswoman.

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MOSCOW, December 23 (Sputnik) — South Central Ambulance Service (SCAS), one of biggest first aid services in Britain, has started recruitment of Polish paramedics and technical staff, in an attempt to fill more than 200 posts, the Oxford Mail newspaper reported Tuesday.

"We have been carrying out some international recruitment in Poland for paramedics where their qualifications, skills and experience are very similar to our own and meet our own high standards for staff," Michelle Archer, the SCAS spokeswoman, as quoted by the Oxford Mail.

Archer emphasized that the SCAS was looking forward to applicants from many countries worldwide, not only from Poland.

The SCAS National Health Service Trust, which encompasses the four UK counties of Buckinghamshire, Berkshire, Hampshire and Oxfordshire, currently has 220 paramedic and technician jobs available, as well as 70 emergency care assistants vacancies, according to the SCAS website. In November, SCAS posted job listings, seeking to fill 260 vacancies, according to the local media.

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However, Unison NHS, the British health service union, opposes this international recruitment approach as a means of combating personnel shortages in the public health sphere. The union believes that a better solution would be to increase pay to existing ambulance staff and efficient investment in the British health service, according to the organisation's website.

In October and November, Unison members, along with 11 other trade unions organised strikes in response to the British Government's decision to reject a one per cent pay rise for NHS staff in 2014, and further pay increases for the coming year. Unison NHS members have announced another strike in 2015, after the New Year holiday, according to the union's official site.

The news reflects sentiment among health workers and their labor unions toward what they see as the UK government's inability to cope with national demand for medical specialists and the NHS payment plan.

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