Need to know
For #TeamEEAST Last updated: 25 April 2024 at 14:13
As you know, next week we are undergoing a rigorous inspection by the Care Quality Commission (CQC).
You can read more about this on the Exec Update we issued this week (on East24) and the CQC Visits: Guide for Staff. This really is our opportunity to showcase our organisation and to demonstrate how we strive to deliver top quality care to our patients - safely and with dignity and compassion.
Inspectors will want to chat with staff and volunteers; please be open, honest and constructive when talking to them as it will help them understand our organisation better. Remember, we have nothing to hide and that we have lots to be proud of.
A couple of weeks ago I shared with you our recruitment plans for the year. I am delighted that we have launched the first phase of these plans and are looking to recruit 150 associate ambulance practitioners (AAP). This will help us to build our patient facing staffing, deliver a better service to patients, relieve the pressure on colleagues and offer more opportunities for existing staff to develop their careers within the ambulance service.
Associate ambulance practitioners will have a similar scope of practice to emergency medical technicians (EMTs) and it will have no impact on existing EMTs who will continue to have opportunities to develop. You can read more about our recruitment plans here.
Finally I want to thank all colleagues who worked over the long Easter weekend, in whatever role you perform as a member of staff or a volunteer; it was a real team effort reflecting our vision and values. It was a very busy bank holiday weekend for everyone who was working with a 17% increase in demand, but there was only a 1.2% increase in the number of incidents we sent a response to compared with Easter 2015. This is due to the investment we have made in putting more clinicians in our EOCs, enabling us to manage and treat more patients over the phone. Whilst we continue to see large rises in demand, as we develop our clinical hubs in each EOC we will be able to manage more patients over the phone which will help ease some of the pressure on staff responding to patients in the community. Thank you again for your hard work.
Have a good week,
Robert
Published 31st March, 2016