We Are EEAST Briefing - Thursday 4th August 2022

 

 

A recording of the latest We Are EEAST Briefing and Executive Q&A, led by Chief Operating Officer Marcus Bailey, is now available. To view individual questions please see the time stamps below.

Introduction from Marcus

Starts @ 00:10

Ends @ 13:11

Link to Clinical Strategy design survey

Link to BME Survey

 

Questions

Q1 - Apologies for the long message, but I think it is important. The last few years have not been the kindest to EEAST, there have been several changes, some of which have been for the better and some of which have caused consternation, but we have all carried on regardless, doing what we do best, caring for our patients and communities – and the CQC agree with that part too. You, Tom, the Exec, and the senior team all take the time to thank us for what we have been doing and continue to do, but I don’t think we return that favour enough. 

Having seen just a fraction of the behind the scenes work that goes on within the senior team, I appreciate that a great deal of time and effort goes in to help us on the journey that we are all making as an organisation, and I think as a collective we also need to take the time to say thank you to you all too. So hopefully a few people here today will join me in saying Thank You. 

Thank you, Marcus, Tom, the Exec and the Heads of Ops/Departments for all the work that you have been doing and continue to do to help us move onwards and upwards and to help drive the whole organisation forward. We can only achieve this as a team, and the team includes everyone. We are EEAST.

Start @ 13:30

Finish @ 16:24

 

Q2 - Can I please raise the question re is there an EEAST wide site e.g. Need to Know where staff can share light bulb ideas and receive a response. Staff have some brilliant ideas when chatting amongst themselves how to improve quality, safety, efficiency etc though these conversations can get lost.

Start @ 16:27

Finish @ 18:18

Additional info – QI@eastamb.nhs.uk

 

Q3 - My question is around uniforms for all ambulance crews in the summer and with the consistent heat, whether the uniforms are appropriate for such conditions. A much lighter material would make a big difference as we are mobile and moving around quite a lot.

Start @ 18:19

Finish @ 20:46

 

Q4 - What’s is happening with business and lease cars? We are putting requests in for them, and it seems to be taking ages to be dealt with.

Start @ 20:49

Finish @ 21:19

Additional info - From Chris Wiltshire - There is a significant back log of orders that need to be worked through, and this is hampered by the global shortage of vehicles (20% less sold in the UK over the last 12 months) and the higher prices and more frequent price changes by manufacturers that are affecting the quote values. Please let me know directly if you have any specific concerns.

 

Q5 - We learnt this week that a specific PAS provider is being banned from using Cambridge ambulance station. There has been no rationale given behind this and it doesn't seem to promote our trust values. Do hospitals have similar policies to have separate agency and non-agency staff rooms or nursing stations?! We are one team and need to be fostering close and effective partnerships. Has this been sanctioned by the executive team?

Start @ 21:21

Finish @ 23:20

Additional info - From Terry Hicks - This was following concerns raised by crews. Please contact him for an update.

 

Q6 - Blue light lease cars are a massive issue at the moment. Despite emailing multiple times, our emails are being ignored, orders are not being put through and when they do, it’s costs us more money since the quote. On top of this some of my colleagues are having to ring other managers to try and source cars for on call. What feels like a kick in the teeth is there are some staff out there who are not blue light trained with blue light cars.

Start @ 24:10

Finish @ 24:55

 

Q7 - Why do we have such limited GRS access? Why can't the daily posting sheet be available for all and not just those on a line, being on relief is stressful enough let alone not knowing who you're working with. We also don't have the option to share your GRS to our calendar - its literally a button and it send a link and connects GRS to your phones calendar, so we don't have to manually input every shift. Any chance these could be Implemented?

Start @ 24:57

Finish @ 25:41

 

Q8 - What is happening moving forward with supporting LOMs with their increasing workload? The LOM role is so diverse, from organising fleet to wellbeing and also attending jobs. Will there be any permanent support for them, or will certain parts of their jobs just be given to staff on AWD?

Start @ 25:42

Finish @ 27:49

 

Q9 - Hi Marcus, regrettably we will always be in this cycle as an organisation. There is a real disconnect between what is being said at an executive level, and what your local management teams are doing. There is simply no desire by some managers to facilitate serious innovation. They fail to see that they themselves are part of the problem and there is zero leadership on the ground. This is not sustainable, and you will continue to haemorrhage staff until this is addressed. What is being done to rectify this?

Start @ 28:00

Finish @ 30:07

 

Q10 - Hi Marcus and team! I just wanted to highlight a concern to yourself around the use of CFR and CFR discharge via clinical. Last night I attended a fall patient who had been amazingly lifted and assessed by the CFR. The CFR used his Trust provided fall checklist and deemed the patient safe to discharge and had begun the process under clinical (responsibility was passed to ourselves once we had arrived, luckily it wasn't a long run time! - this was not a CFR request for back up purely we were there and sent).

Said patient was on blood thinners and had hit her head, so required a trip to hospital. I'm quite sure clinical would have picked this up too! However, more concerningly, the patient had a new onset LBBB with an accompanying aortic ejection murmur with carotid radiation (almost certainly aortic stenosis), this lady came to hospital for review, echo and bloods.

My concern is that the CFR had assessed the patient correctly to his training and I have to agree minus the blood thinner knowledge I'd of discharged her too if I had his training. I am really concerned that we have patients having falls who we put down to 'extrinsic falls' and discharge without clinical level assessment (ECG, heart sounds etc.).

I appreciate the Trust use clinical to mitigate this however clinical cannot perform a detailed assessment over the phone, we know this and that's why we attend ECAT jobs. I have concerns for patient safety and question the Trusts justification for allowing this when we limit calls AEMTs and below can attend without oversight but will willing send a CFR. Can this be looked into please and thank you? :)

Start @ 30:12

Finish @ 33:44

 

Q11 - Any ideas when the section 2/Annex 5 issue is going to be sorted for SAP’s? We were informed months ago it would be a few weeks.

Start @ 33:47

Finish @ 34:15

 

Q12 - Some staff feel that staff on AWD are given opportunities to do projects and take on different roles and get involved in different things. This then causes other staff to feel that it’s unfair that these staff members get more opportunities than they do.

Start @ 34:16

Finish @ 37:01

 

Q13 - Why do we have little to no progression for EMT? What do we do for those staff that don't want to become a paramedic? Look at LAS, they have so much career progression for all their roles!

Start @ 37:03

Finish @ 39:39

 

Q14 - Hi Marcus, the previous comment around lack of leadership on the ground I don't think is a fair reflection of the hard work being replicated from leaders and colleagues on the ground who are trying to make EEAST a better place to work for our staff and a better service to our patients.

Start @ 39:41

Finish @ 40:41

 

Q15 - On the flipside I'm a senior EMT that would love to progress to paramedic.  However, to do this now would see me have to change to a section 2 contract, meaning being worse off financially and contractually. I assume the Trust would rather bring in the uni grads than progress their own experienced staff?? 

Start @ 40:42

Finish @ 42:11

 

Q16 - What is the Trust doing about the repeated failing of AOC equipment? The radios are constantly faulting, breaking or stopping working and it's a serious staff safety concern.

Start @ 42:14

Finish @ 45:04

 

Q17 - What is happening about the Business & Project Support Manager Secondments?

Start @ 45:07

Finish @ 46:43

 

Q18 - Hi Marcus, thank you, we have lots of support available for all colleagues particularly those in Team Leader/Supervisor/LOM roles available 24/7 on EVOLVE. Please contact me if we can support jill.page@eastamb.nhs.uk.

Start @ 46:46

Finish @ 47:06

 

Q19 - Will job descriptions and managerial structure be looked at? Many job descriptions are not highlighting just how much that role covers where workloads have increased. Some roles such as admin roles are on a lower pay-band, yet such staff are expected to carry out a lot, yet when it comes to hiring for such a role there is not much uptake (querying if the Job Description is overwhelming or pay too low).

Start @ 47:07

Finish @ 49:36

 

Q20 - What training are we providing managers to lead people? The trust provides a number of evolve courses on policy management, but not how to lead staff and deal with day-to-day people management, which isn't empowering managers to lead.

Start @ 49:38

Finish @ 51:58

 

Q21 - Are the Compliance and Risk Officers secondments going to be extended again?

Start @ 51:01

Finish @ 53:16

 

Q22 - When is the surge plan being reviewed? It's clearly not fit for purpose as we're always at Surge White.

Start @ 53:17

Finish @ 56:20

 

Q23 - Can I ask how it is fair to employ prehospital practitioners into a band 6 role, doing the same job as a band 5 NQP (who may have more prehospital experience). The JD does not state that the prehospital practitioners must have 2 years post qualification experience, but paramedics do before moving to band 6?

Start @ 56:50

Finish @ 58:42

 

Q24 - Following these briefings, can the aired questions be documented and then answers written in full (I get you cannot also provide an exact answer on spot), then published. To ensure all questions get their full answer..

Start @ 58:43

Finish @ 59:06

 

Q25 - When will the Trust recognise that the support offered to front line staff is not adequate? I have myself attended a distressing incident on Friday and had no contact from anybody over the weekend and then received a 1-line email whilst on a rest day. No attempt from management to call or check in over the weekend, I'm lucky I have a close family around, but others may not have.

Start @ 59:17

Finish @ 1:00:38

 

Q26 - Can we please encourage frontline staff take more responsibility for equipment and realise the more damages and lost equipment we see all has an impact on the organisation’s finances. Throwing a device in a draw and leaving it there as opposed to returning it means we must buy another as opposed to fixing items we already have and reallocating them. By the time it is returned it is unusable. We seem to have a culture of blame that it is too difficult, so I won’t bother, but we ALL need to see the bigger picture and start taking responsibility for this if we want things to change.

Start @ 1:00:58

Finish @ 1:03:04

 

Q27 – Why do we still see new jobs being advertised with ‘indicative bands'? Surely when they go to banding panel it would be disheartening if they are banded at a lower banding, how will this be dealt with?

Start @ 1:03:05

Finish @ 1:04:38

 

Q28 - Why are we still keeping our transfer lists a secret?  North Cambs have many vacant lines, but people aren’t being offered lines or secondments and people aren’t sure where they are in the queue. If it is a published list people won’t feel like others are getting lines over others.  It’s causing poor morale for staff.

Start @ 1:04:41

Finish @ 1:06:11

Additional info from Terry Hicks: I’ve checked the local transfer list with the AGM today; it is a long list with a number of staff that have been waiting for lines for some time, but I am being reassured that lines are offered on a regular basis. One comment is that lines are being offered but declined based on shift pattern and other individual factors.

It isn’t beneficial nor necessarily reasonable to share names that are on any list – whatever the reason for this. Some staff may have very personal issues that are driving their reasons for wanting to transfer that they might not want sharing. I don’t believe that the regional transfer list that is owned by HR shares names?

 

Close from Marcus

Start @ 1:06:12

Finish @ 1:06:53

 

You can catch up on previous We Are EEAST Briefings on our Archive page. You can also catch up on Local Manager's Briefings here. 

Published 8th August 2022