Medical students are being urged to help relieve the NHS winter crisis

Undergraduates are voluntarily filling labour gaps at the NHS as it struggles to cope with the winter crisis.

Unqualified students are being asked to volunteer at hospitals as NHS is buffeted by the multiple headwinds stirred up by budget cuts, cold weather and an outbreak of flu.

According to The Guardian, Dr Andrew Hassell, head of Keele University’s medical school has written to 4th and 5th year students to ask them to help out with the NHS "national crisis".

He wrote: "We’re sure you don’t need us to tell you about the extraordinary situation the whole of the NHS is facing this winter.

"As the medical school for this area we think we should be doing whatever we can to support local services while maintaining student learning. We are sure you will want to be part of our collective effort at this time of national crisis."

On 4 January, days after the NHS was forced to cancel tens of thousands of operations, medical students in Liverpool were warned that they may be put under extra pressure while participating at their hospital and GP placements.

Students have been asked to fit cannulas (tubes so patients can receive intravenous medication) and to take blood, duties usually carried out by nurses and trained doctors.

The hospitals could face legal problems if students make mistakes, amid concern that their presence on wards may only serve to disguise the depth of NHS staff shortages.

Harrison Carter, the co-chair of the British Medical Association's medical students committee, said the situation that students were experiencing was quite worrying.

He said: "Not only would this be exploitation of students who may be reluctant to say no, but it raises concerns over patient safety if those working on the frontline are asked to work beyond clinical competence.

"While the Government insists the NHS was better prepared than ever before for winter, this shows hospitals resorting to desperate measures to cope with a system struggling with increased demand and lack of staff and resources.”

Dr Carter added: "Medical students are the next generation of doctors and what they are seeing unfold in hospitals up and down the country is the health service at its worst, with little to no action being taken by those in power to tackle what has become an annual issue."