Need to know
For #TeamEEAST Last updated: 18 May 2024 at 11:54
Thank you and Happy Christmas
I want to start by thanking you all for your hard work and commitment during what has been another very challenging year. I hope you can all relax with friends and family at some point over the coming week. To those of you giving up your time with loved ones in order to work over Christmas, it is much appreciated, and we are grateful you will be there to keep our patients safe.
A lot of work has gone into preparing the Trust for this Christmas and New Year period, to ensure that we can manage the additional demands during this time. We have made good progress in recruiting additional call handlers to our AOCs and it is great to see it having a positive impact on our call answering times. Thank you to everyone involved in what is a huge and ongoing effort.
We are improving the way we triage calls, prioritising patients who need us most. This, combined with our C1 improvement plan (which focuses CFRs, ambulances and RRVs in places where we see particularly high volumes of C1 calls) is helping us respond more quickly and we are already seeing some positive changes.
We continue to work with our NHS partners across the region, developing new and better pathways for patients, including mental health and frailty, and reducing the number of ambulances we send.
All of this is keeping our patients safer, and thankfully we are reducing the number of patient incidents, welcome news for us all.
Playing our part
We know that sickness is still impacting on our people. Stress continues to be one of the major reasons that people are taking sick leave for so please make sure you access the available support and take the time to look after yourselves.
COVID is also impacting on staff sickness, with more people needing to take time off as a result of catching COVID or being a close contact of someone who has. Please protect yourself and your loved ones by having the COVID vaccines and booster. Please also read this letter from Prof Stephen Powis and Prof Anthony Marsh.
You will probably be aware, that from 31st March 2022, anyone working in a patient facing role must have received both COVID vaccines. The good news is, that 94% of you have done so. However, we are still updating our records and have emailed you if we are unsure, so please respond to confirm as soon as possible.
You can book your vaccine here. We realise that some people will have medical reasons preventing them having the vaccine. However, if you are still unsure about whether to get vaccinated, please talk to your manager to understand your options. The vaccines are safe and will provide you with the best protection from serious illness or hospitalisation should you catch COVID.
We are also frequently reviewing and updating our guidance around COVID-19 and the precautions we all need to take, the latest information is on Need to Know.
We have also clarified the guidance for staff with disabilities, sick leave and incentives as we had a number of questions from people around this important area.
Christmas and new year leave 2022/23
Following extensive staff feedback regarding the fairness of annual leave booking over the Christmas and New Year period, we will be implementing a new approach to this, which will apply to anyone booking annual leave from 24th December 2022 to 1st January 2023.
The policy will be finalised and published in January. Please wait until the new policy is in place before booking leave or it may need to be changed.
Thank you again for everything that you do.
Wishing you and your loved ones a safe and happy Christmas.
Tom Abell
Chief Executive
23rd December 2021