Need to know
For #TeamEEAST Last updated: 18 May 2024 at 05:33
I want to start this week by expressing my respect and solidarity to our colleagues in Paris who provided the emergency response following the atrocious terrorist attacks last week. I cannot imagine the scenes they were presented with, but it serves us as a reminder of the need to be prepared for the worst at all times and to be ever vigilant. You will have been emailed a briefing on Monday about security and vigilance, so I hope you’ve had the time to read and digest the useful guidance within it.
Last week, Executive colleagues joined me to meet with a number of our commissioners (the people who contract us to provide services on their behalf) and the NHS Trust Development Authority. They all expressed how the Trust is progressing in the right direction but all made it explicitly clear that they expect to see a rapid improvement in our performance, particularly our time response to red calls. This provides us with a real challenge as we know we need to continue to recruit more patient- facing staff, develop how we care for more patients in the community and develop the clinical skills of our staff. We need everyone’s support to do this.
We will need to balance our longer-term aims with the immediate need for us all to focus on winter pressures and improve performance in the coming weeks and months. We have already started this with the on-going recruitment of patient-facing staff, putting more clinicians in EOCs to better manage and triage calls, and the introduction of a GP into the EOC to support crews referring more patients to other healthcare pathways in the community. Work underway with CCG partners in Norfolk is an example of the good work underway to provide alternative options closer to the patient rather than conveyance to hospital. We will need to accelerate some of this work and a performance workshop later in the month will review progress and implement more activities that can help us reach the right patients faster.
Part of this work will involve considering what our operating model should be based on the needs of the Urgent and Emergency Care Review and the associated future workforce planning work by Health Education England. We now know that the current operating model of a 70:30 paramedic/technician workforce predominantly deployed on DSA/RRVs will not meet the future needs of our population and does not provide career opportunities for staff.
We know that reaching patients quickly is just one element of providing quality care, so we must maintain throughout a relentless focus on the standards of care we deliver to our patients. But if we are to continue to attract investment in our service and people, we need to be able to show that we can improve our performance across the Board and in every locality, while at the same time, beginning to change our operating model to be more aligned to future needs.
This week, we also launched the collaborative work which has resulted in Suffolk Fire and EEAST being co-located in Bury St. Edmunds. I want to acknowledge everyone involved who made this great example of blue light collaboration possible. In keeping with the spirit and intent of this work, we are also working with all six fire services to explore how our blue light colleagues can support our staff and CFRs in improving the outcome for patients suffering out of hospital cardiac arrest and similar life threatening events.
We took another step towards improving our service this week with the implementation of the new Cleric CAD in Bedford EOC. This is a massive step forward; it gives our staff a better system to use and will in time help improve our response to patients. I want to personally thank everyone who has been involved in implementing this critical project and all those who worked on the night and in these following days to make sure it was successful. This is a real testament to what we can achieve in very short timescales. I had the opportunity to be in Bedford EOC on the night and it was reassuring to see the level of enthusiasm and commitment demonstrated by everyone there. It was also heartening to see that crews on the road were equally supportive and understanding of the pressure their EOC colleagues were under. This camaraderie was clearly evidenced by all of the crews on the night whom were voluntarily flexible around their meal breaks. This act of support was really appreciated by EOC colleagues and helped to alleviate the potential for increased pressure.
During this week, it also came to our attention that we had a potential mechanical issue with our DSA fleet. The response from our Operational Support team was fantastic. To say they were all over it is an understatement. The team recognised the potential for service impact and set up a plan to immediately check all 321 of our DSAs across the region working right throughout the night to check every vehicle as quickly as possible. Only four vehicles out of the 321 were identified as in need of scheduled work, but were considered safe. This is a great achievement by everyone involved and a clear indication that the patient-facing side of our organisation simply cannot function without the high quality work and commitment of our support services.
Over the last few weeks, I have received a lot of feedback from colleagues about our Occupational Health capacity. Following a discussion between the Executive, we collectively recognised that employing our own physiotherapist could provide more health and wellbeing benefits and input to Trust activities than just funding physiotherapy sessions. Along with our decision to employ our own Health and Wellbeing Manager, this is part of our drive to better support staff and your health and wellbeing needs, where our finances will allow.
Finally, I would like to extend my thoughts and sorrow to Kerry and Iain Colquhoun, whose young daughter sadly lost a brave battle with cancer. It is at this time of immense tragedy that the support of colleagues, now and into the future, becomes increasingly important. I know that both Kerry and Iain have found great strength in the depth of support they have received from EEAST colleagues.
With best wishes,
Robert
Published 19th November, 2015