A new form for infection, prevention and control (IPC) audits will be introduced on April 8, which will make the process quicker and easier to complete.

Cases of scarlet fever are on the rise across England, with Public Health England reporting more than 3,500 new cases since September – almost a 50% rise in the same period for the last 10 years. This season’s outbreak is the highest since 1989.

The Trust is implementing a fully electronic system for the request and issue of individual morphine passbooks (red books) using SharePoint, a Microsoft application, from April 1.

More than 200 emergency care assistants (ECAs) have successfully passed their pre-entry exam to progress on the pathway to become a technician.

The Trust is sad to share the news that Malcolm Wilkinson, who retired at the end of last year after more than eight years working in the fleet team, has passed away.

Your weekly update from the Chief Executive Officer.

Your weekly update from the Chief Executive Officer

If you have a problem with your IT or need to request a service from the IT team, please make sure you make your request via the service desk. This is so that requests can be properly allocated and tracked to ensure that they are completed.

Business continuity awareness week is an international event organised by the Business Continuity Institute. This year’s theme is ‘counting the cost’ – looking at the potential consequences of not having an effective business continuity system in place.

The newest version of the MPDS audit policy was implemented in the HEOCs at the beginning of February. This version incorporates the newest performance standards from the International Academies of Emergency Dispatch and sees a shift from compliance scoring in percentages to the introduction of compliance categories.

Due to changes in staffing, the procurement team will be dealing with all requests for hotel and rail bookings once a week, instead of on an ad-hoc basis.

The Trust will be providing the emergency cover at this year’s V Festival in Hylands Park, Chelmsford for four days from August 15 – 18, with the aim of avoiding hospital admissions and treating patients at the event where possible.

The Listening into Action programme has now been drawn to a close but staff engagement remains an important priority.

EEAST will be attending Gay Pride events in Norwich, London and Brighton this year and would like to invite staff to support the LGBT community, represent the ambulance service and promote the value of equal opportunities.

Details of how the Trust protects your identity after you make a safeguarding referral.

The Trust is rolling out pre-filled syringes with needles for adrenaline 1:1,000. Further information can be found in the clinical bulletin on East24 and from home.

The Trust has been praised by patients who used the service in December, with 83% saying they would be extremely likely to recommend the service to friends and family.

With the control systems for BOC medical gas individual cylinders well-established, all staff are asked to remember that it is vital the coloured neck collar is not removed from the cylinder.

EEAST is working with Uniting Care Partnership on an exciting new business development opportunity in the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough area.

Children in the east of England are invited to enter the Trust’s second annual drawing competition, which has been launched again for 2014 following a successful first year.

All MPDS codes which are generated through ProQA (the call coding system we use in HEOC) are currently being clinically reviewed as part of the Trust’s ongoing commitment to ensure the most appropriate response is given to patients.

The safeguarding team have reviewed the set of questions used when staff call SPOC; as a result, some changes have been made to make sure the information gathered is useful, correct and relevant.

A report published on Monday (March 10) in response to the pressures facing urgent and emergency care services in England proposes that ambulance services can take a greater role in the system.

Public Health England has notified healthcare providers about a new group of bacteria that have become very resistant to antibiotics, known as carbapenemase-producing enterobacteriaceae (sometimes called CPE).

Here are some common questions answered about the new access fobs, including information on what to do if you lose your fob, how to get one for a new member of staff, and what to do with any old ones.

The Freedom of Information (FoI) Act granted the right for anybody to request recorded information from public sector organisations. Requests can be on any subject, and we are required to reply to requests promptly. For this reason it is important that all staff are aware of the requirements of the Act, and the need to assist the FoI Officer in responding to requests when necessary.

In two recent separate prosecutions for assaults on Trust staff, a man has been sentenced to prison for four weeks and a woman has been given a 12-month conditional discharge, with a £100 compensation order.

As part of the annual mandatory information governance training, staff can undertake an interactive e-learning refresher module using the NHS information governance (IG) training tool.

An update from the fleet team on the additional ambulances, the delivery of the new Skoda Scout rapid response cars and a Mercedes Benz van converted ambulance trial.

The Trust has set up a ‘rumour busting’ email address to try and clarify some of the most talked about issues. If you have heard something that you think may not be right, please email rumourbusting@eastamb.nhs.uk and we will respond with the correct information.

The Trust’s internal and external communications teams have been developing the way they work to improve how we share and publicise news from the service.

An update from Chief Executive Dr Anthony Marsh on the new proposed operational structure, following a meeting with 150 of our operations and clinical managers.

Following the news that a paramedic in Northern Ireland had his Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) registration removed for allowing an ambulance to run out of fuel on an emergency call, the Trust wants to clarify the expectation for EEAST staff.