The West Yorkshire ambulance service's decision to employ a full-time masseur to look after its employees' aches, pains and sprains makes a lot of sense all round, as does its acquisition of a state-of-the-art mobile occupational health unit.

The decision is not a hasty one. It follows a pilot study in which a free remedial masseur was introduced to treat orthopaedic and stress-related problems. The result was a significant reduction in absences.

Being a member of an ambulance crew is a stressful, heavy job involving a great deal of lifting. The crews, like all health service employees, are given instruction in lifting techniques to enable them to do their best to avoid injuring themselves.

But given the nature of their work it is inevitable that despite all the care they take when lifting and carrying patients they will strain themselves from time to time.

When that happens, recovery without specialist help can be a long job. WYMAS occupation health manager Jane Mitchell estimates an average of four weeks absence per injury.

The standard treatment by GPs is rest and pain-killing tablets. If there is no improvement, the patient is referred to a physiotherapist and, in all probability, will have to spend some time on a waiting list.

So, given the cost to the service in terms of time lost leading to pressure on resources, it would seem to be a sound investment to employ someone whose job is to speed up the process and get the crews back to work as soon as possible - and, of course, reduce the amount of pain they have to endure.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.