Need to know
For #TeamEEAST Last updated: 19 April 2024 at 07:38
It seems that our 999 calls rose with the temperatures at the weekend, as we saw our busiest 72-hours so far this year. Averaging 3,370 calls a day from Saturday to Monday, it was no easy time to work and I’d like to extend my personal thanks to all of you who were on shift. We’re having to look after more patients, but please make sure you’re looking after yourselves and each other in the warm weather as well. Stay hydrated and try to keep cool - our patient facing colleagues were able to wear white t-shirts during the few days of the heatwave to try and keep the temperatures down! Any of you who have worn the uniform will know that it unfortunately isn’t the most comfortable attire when it’s hot.
With the warm weather, and at this time of year generally, our minds drift to holidays and time with loved ones. Events in Nice remind us of the need to remain vigilant, and the importance of the work of our colleagues working in special operations and resilience who plan, train and exercise to prepare for the worst and hope for the best. If you are due to go on holiday in the near future - bon voyage and safe travels.
It’s been a busy seven days outside of our ‘bread and butter’ of responding to 999 calls as well. We had a very positive and productive meeting with a number of our MPs this week and we discussed a range of issues including the need to invest in the ambulance service and build capacity, performance improvements and stroke care. I was able to share the improvements that we are making in the quality of care we give to our patients, our performance and our culture. Alongside this we talked about the issue we face, such as our funding and capacity gap, and how we collectively as a health system need to tackle these and make changes. There was much support in the room for us, the progress we have made and the work we do for our patients.
You may already be aware that last week we welcomed an agreement on late finishes and meal breaks. Reaching that point only came from a lot of hard work from everyone involved, but the implementation will also require as much, if not more, joint focus and effort. And earlier this week we received the draft report from our Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspection so that we can do our required accuracy checks. As it’s a draft report we aren’t in a position to share more detail or the contents just yet, but as soon as that changes we’ll make it available to you all. On the report ‘theme’, we’ve also had some really positive results in a report by NHS England that looks the experiences of minority colleagues across the NHS. The report hopes to help trusts improve on workforce race equality, a picture we want to embed further in our own culture here at EEAST.
My own time continues to be absorbed engaging with commissioners and NHS Improvement (the organisation that brings together what was previously Monitor and the NHS Trust Development Authority). Unfortunately, this is preventing me from getting out and about as much as I’d like to around our patch; I have had to cancel a number of station visits and shifts, something that I really don’t like doing, because of short notice requests for meetings. I’m sorry to those of you who I’ve had to rearrange with - I hope the situation will change soon and I can get back to joining you on the patient-facing side of things.
Looking ahead to next week, it’s our annual public meeting, to which there is an open invite if any of our colleagues or volunteers would like to attend. You can read more about the plan for the day here, but amongst other displays we will be showcasing our new specialist practitioner (urgent care) vehicle that will be going on trial shortly with our west Norfolk team. Linked to this, a specialist practitioner role for urgent care should be going live on NHS Jobs next week; I am really pleased to see this coming together, as we are now recruiting for all stages of our new clinical career pathway.
I want to close off this week by talking about one of our south west Essex colleagues, Dave Skeels. Dave has been working in the ambulance service for some 30 years and is still out there providing high quality care and good humour to his Essex patients, despite (and I hope he won’t mind me saying this) having reached a well-respected 71 years. His dedication, commitment and the respect his colleagues have for him speak volumes. I know Dave is one of many long-serving colleagues – thank you all for your knowledge, your expertise, and most importantly, for sticking with us!
Have a good week,
Robert,
Published 21st July, 2016