Bridging the gap: an update from CEO Robert Morton - 19th May

Since I joined EEAST it has been very clear to me that we have a big capacity gap. Basically, this means that we do not have enough funding to recruit the staff we need to meet patient demand.  And I know, having met many of you over the last eight months, that this has been something you and the Trust has consistently raised over many years.

As demand has continued to rise, we have not been able to keep pace with it, and so the net results have been that some aspects of the quality of service have deteriorated, and the pressure on you has grown and grown.  In terms of the quality of service we give to patients, we have seen delayed responses, with some patients waiting for hours, and solo responders waiting on scene for prolonged periods for back-up.  And of course, the lack of capacity is the fundamental reason for the scale of late finishes that impact on colleagues.

We have been working really closely with commissioners (the people who decide what level of funding we will get to run our service), NHS England and NHS Improvement to see how we can bridge that capacity gap and make improvements for patients. In essence we are looking at the following areas:

1. The recruitment of 750 student paramedics over the last two years will help increase our capacity once they are fully qualified, but this is going to take time as they still need the time and space to complete their education and training.

2. What can we do more efficiently? We know some of our processes are not efficient and that we could also manage more patients over the phone, which would free up our clinicians to respond to the most seriously unwell people. We also know that we could get more out of the technology we use.

3. We need to continue with our plans to significantly increase our patient facing staff, and the recruitment is already underway.

4. We need to increase our reach into the community for those patients with the most life threatening conditions. I am pleased that Essex Fire and Rescue Service went live with three co-responding schemes this month and every other fire service in the region will have schemes in place soon.

5. There is a commitment from our partners to help tackle hospital handover delays. We will have a role to play in this but we know there are patients waiting in the community for help because we are tied up waiting at A&E departments.

6. We need a significant injection of funding to help us develop clinical hubs in each EOC, and to be able to put more patient facing staff in the community.

On this last point, I am pleased that we have made good headway in that there is agreement all round that we need a significant increase in our funding. We are still working on the exact details, and we will share this with you when it is finalised, but we are already getting on and looking at how we can use that money in the next few weeks and months to increase our capacity by getting more private ambulance service (PAS) and agency staff to support us.

Clearly, our preference would be to recruit permanent members of staff rather than have to rely on PAS, but the only short term solution is to buy in these services whilst we put the longer term training and recruitment plans in place. This will help relieve some of the pressures facing all our patient facing staff, including those in EOC.

This is a real landmark for us and we need to grasp this opportunity. We already have a team working really hard on how to make the changes we need happen, and I know I can rely on all colleagues to help us drive this Trust forwards - so we call do everything possible to improve our service to patients.

On a very different note, I want to say a well done to the Longwater teams who came in on their rest days film what can only be described as a truly exceptional effort for the ‘Running Man Challenge’! The team have also raised money for charity in the process and the video itself caused much enjoyment and laughter at HQ when I watched it yesterday - bravo. It was published less than 24-hours ago but at the last count it had already had more than 10,000 views! If yours isn’t one of them yet you can take a look at it on the Trust’s YouTube channel.

Have a good week.

Robert

Published 19th May, 2016