Ambulance crews in Bradford can relax and enjoy a free massage in an effort to keep them in tip-top condition.

And staff do not even have to leave the comfort of their station - because the masseur will come to them.

The travelling masseur is part of West Yorkshire Metropolitan Ambulance Service's latest piece of equipment - a state-of-the-art mobile occupational health unit. The unit, which has just been unveiled, will tour stations and locations and look after the health and welfare of staff.

The ambulance service's occupational health manager Jane Mitchell said: "It's a case of carers looking after other carers."

The ambulance service has identified that muscular skeletal injuries, as a result of lifting and carrying patients, were the main problems affecting crews, resulting in an average of four weeks absence per injury. The standard treatment by GPs is rest and pain killing tablets and, if there is no improvement, the patient is referred to a physiotherapist, which takes time.

WYMAS introduced a free remedial masseur as a pilot study to treat orthopaedic and stress-related problems. The service helped cut down absences. So successful was the pilot study that remedial masseur Andrew Luty has joined the team full-time.

An ambulance service spokesman said: "We have had problems with back injuries and this unit allows us to go round to see staff and get their injuries sorted out."

The new mobile unit has been designed following consultation with Mr Luty and Mrs Mitchell. Mrs Mitchell said the group was delighted with the new vehicle because it provided a comfortable environment for the remedial masseur and also enabled them to promote other occupational health issues and to keep staff in tip-top condition.

LAST YEAR, West Yorkshire Ambulance crews responded to more than 220,000 emergency and urgent calls, making it one of the busiest services in the country. It is moving more patients than any other service and during the year, patients were carried more than eight million miles.

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