More than 11,000 people who joined the NHS Covid-19 vaccination programme have decided to stay on in the health service in other roles, in a huge boost to the workforce.

With training and skills built up over the pandemic, as many as 11,483 people have now gone on to jobs supporting medical teams, boosting patient experience and even studying for clinical roles themselves.

NHS England has said that the expanded workforce will help the NHS tackle the elective backlog as services bounce back across the country and help patients get the best care possible as quickly as possible.

Amanda Pritchard, NHS England chief executive, said: “Not only did these people help deliver the most successful NHS vaccination programme in history, protecting the public against the virus at speed, they are now continuing to help us care for others in various roles across the country.

“From new starters to people who had retired, thousands took up the call to get jabs in arms in their local communities and it is fantastic that more than 11,000 people have decided to stay with us in another capacity, taking on one of the many rewarding roles across the health service. With more than 350 different roles within the NHS – there are roles for everyone so please search NHS careers today, if you are interested in joining us too.”

Since December 2020 the NHS has recruited over 71,000 people for the NHS Covid-19 vaccination programme who have helped to deliver more than 120 million doses to all age groups, including more than 32 million boosters and over 1.4 million spring boosters.