Need to know
For #TeamEEAST Last updated: 18 May 2024 at 08:29
I want to begin my message with the awful situation that has been unfolding this week in Israel. For anyone with friends or family in that part of the world, our thoughts are with you. I would urge anyone who feels that they are struggling to access the wellbeing support we offer, and please let’s all make sure that we take the time to treat colleagues with the compassion and kindness they deserve.
Calibre Awards
It’s always a pleasure to be part of someone’s celebration, and today I am really looking forward to attending the Calibre Award Ceremony, recognising the achievements of this year’s graduates, many of whom are colleagues here at EEAST.
The Calibre Programme is a leadership and talent development programme specifically aimed at those who are neurodiverse, living with a disability, or have a long-term physical or mental health condition. Today’s event marks the culmination of some extremely hard work, as we celebrate this year’s graduates, and it is heartwarming to know that as our colleagues, they will be helping us to drive and lead the work that is already underway to make ours a truly inclusive workplace. Congratulations, and I look forward to seeing you all later.
Encouraging more people to Restart a Heart
Tuesday, 16 October, is national Restart a Heart Day, which is a great opportunity to remind people of the difference that basic life support (BLS) and a defibrillator can make when a patient, colleague, family member or friend goes into cardiac arrest. The more people who have BLS training and know where to find their nearest defib, the more lives we can save. That’s why over the coming days we have teams out in the community as part of our EEAST Heart initiative, which provides BLS training to local groups and we will be encouraging as many people as possible to sign up to EEAST heart training in the future.
During the next couple of weeks, we will also have trainers in house at the EEAST bases in Chelmsford, Norwich and Bedford, who will be offering free BLS training for any colleague who wishes to learn. The local management teams will be sharing all the dates and times of the training sessions with colleagues nearer the time. I know this is something that has been mentioned at our Trust wide Q&A sessions in the past and I’m delighted that we’re finally able to offer an opportunity like this on a wider scale. At a recent Board meeting I, and other members of the exec team who were not already trained in BLS, had the opportunity to learn the basics, and I’ve got to say it was reassuring to know I was learning skills that will make a real difference should the need ever arise.
Meet your HR Business Partners
Each geographical area that the Trust covers now has its own dedicated HR Business Partner, who provides support and advice to colleagues and teams in their locality. It’s important that all of us have access to an HR expert as and when we need some specialist help, so it’s great to be able to share a comprehensive schedule of dates and locations for you to meet your local HR Business Partner.
You can contact them in advance if you’d like to book a meeting, or just drop in for a chat on a day when they’re in your station. Please do make use of their expertise and knowledge, they’re here to help.
New and improved East24
We are excited to be launching our new Trust intranet next week, bringing together the current East24 and Need to Know platforms onto one SharePoint based site.
The new site will give staff a more intuitive and modern site to find information and news about the Trust. With a new document library with an advanced search engine, the ability to comment and engage with news articles, and an improved navigation, the new site should allow for a much more user-friendly experience.
We are initially launching with a basic version of the site but will spend the following few months continuing to develop the site into a refined end product that works for everyone.
To get a first look at the new site, and to find out more about the new features and how to use them, take a look at our articles on the new navigation demo, the new search demo and the new news demo.
If you have any questions about the new intranet site, please email the communications team.
Have you grabbed your free coffee yet?
We’re a week into this year’s National Staff Survey, and I’m really pleased that many of you have already taken the time to respond and have now received your £5 Costa voucher, funded by our EEAST Charity.
There’s still plenty of time for those of you who haven’t yet done so to get involved as it remains open throughout October. Last week you were emailed your unique link to the survey by Picker, who manage the survey on our behalf. Simply click on the link and take 10-15 minutes to tell us about what life is like for you here at EEAST, the good or the bad – we want you to share the things that matter to you. It is completely anonymous. If you’d like more detail about the survey, there are frequently asked questions available on Need to Know.
Norfolk and Waveney improvement week
Thank you to everyone who has been involved in the Norfolk and Waveney improvement week. We’ve had healthcare professionals from partner organisations riding out with crews, working with dispatchers and call handlers this week to help them understand the reasons behind delays in the patient journey and look at ways to reduce them.
This is an important piece of work, particularly as we head into winter. We’ll be collating all the findings and working with our partners to look in more detail at what they experienced and build on improvement ideas which have come out of the week.
I was lucky enough to spend some time in Norwich EOC this week with some of the team there. My takeaway from the day was how dedicated and professional the team are when helping our patients, even when under immense pressure to deal with situations that are sensitive and difficult. The compassion and care shown to our patients makes me so proud to be part of EEAST. It also highlighted to me how important What3Words is and I would encourage everyone to download this app.
Let’s Talk campaign
We all know that it’s good to talk, and that’s exactly what our new Let’s Talk campaign aims to encourage, opening up discussions on topics that some people find difficult to raise, but which may impact our everyday life here at the Trust.
Each month, we will be hosting a conversation, via Teams, on specific subjects, and we’re launching this month with a discussion around racism. The good news is, if you haven’t already signed up then there’s still time to do so, by filling in your details on OLM via ESR.
You can find a full list of the themes that will be up for discussion in the Let’s Talk campaign over the coming year on Need to Know.
Flu
As we announced last week, our annual flu campaign begins this month, with vaccination clinics opening on 23rd October. This year, all staff will be offered both the flu and Covid jabs, and we’ll have clinics right across the region at varying times, so we hope this will make it easier than ever to get yourself protected.
We will share further details on how, and where, to book your vaccinations as soon as possible.
Thank You Thursday
Our thank you this week is for one of our Stevenage CFRs.
‘The community first responder who attended me was an absolutely fantastic man. I was so lucky to have such a volunteer. He was so friendly, so efficient and so caring and obviously knows what he is doing. He is a credit to the ambulance service.’
Thanks to all of you.
Marika Stephenson
Executive Director of People Services
Published 12 October 2023