STUDENT nurses and junior doctors have enlisted at the Royal Bolton Hospital to help medics cope with coronavirus cases.

A total of 75 student nurses and midwives have volunteered to start work and they have been joined by 20 junior doctors, who have agreed to start their training in Bolton now, rather than in August as originally planned.

A group of 36 student nurses in year two and the first six months of their final year three studies are working as clinical assistants at the Royal Bolton Hospital. A further 21, who are in the last six months of their final year, are working for four to eight weeks as “aspirant nurses” before applying to become pre-registration nurses. The student nurses and junior doctors have been joined by 18 student midwives who have stepped out of their training to help Bolton NHS Foundation Trust.

James Mawrey, Director of Workforce, said: “This group can be truly proud of themselves. They have shown remarkable selflessness in coming forward now to help our staff and our patients. I’d also like to thank individuals throughout the organisation for their hard work in getting these large numbers of recruitments sorted in a short time.”

The Bolton News recently reported how 320 nursing students at the University of Bolton were volunteering to work at hospitals to help in the fight against covid-19.

They included Danielle Hollick from Radcliffe.