Update from Anthony Marsh – 29th January

This month’s Board meeting took place on Tuesday in Hertfordshire, during which I proposed my six priorities for the organisation in 2015/16, which include:

• continue to recruit and train student paramedics in 2015/16
• continue to up-skill ECAs to EMTs
• continue to up-skill EMTs to paramedics
• continue the fleet replacement plan to maintain all frontline vehicles less than five years old
• reinvest the corporate spend into frontline delivery through robust benchmarking
• implement a comprehensive organisational development programme.

When I first joined the Trust, I outlined six key priorities for the transformation of the organisation during the first 12 months, and we have successfully delivered against each of these. Although it has been a very challenging December and Christmas period for the whole of the NHS with large increases in demand, our ambulance service has coped well and this is due to the actions we put in place last January – such as recruiting hundreds more frontline staff, increasing ambulance cover and upskilling existing staff.

I always said it would take two years to turnaround the service, so the six priorities for 2015/16 are needed as we work towards becoming a sustainable top performing ambulance service. These priorities are now being considered by the Board and once approved, I will confirm the details and how they will be achieved.

We have made significant progress and we should be proud of what we have achieved, which is down to the hard work of everyone in the organisation. I saw another example of this progress this week as our performance in South Bedfordshire is now achieving all three national targets for the year to date (Red 1, Red 2 and A19). This is a very positive achievement, so well done to everyone in the area; another example of how we are providing a better response and service to patients. The organisation is really moving forward and I am very proud of what we are accomplishing.

Published 29th January 2015