Update from Anthony Marsh - 24th July 2014

I am extremely proud of how the service is handling the increase in the current 999 demand and want to record my thanks for your efforts. The summer is generally a period of sustained call volume but the last two weekends have seen a considerable spike, which is part of a concerning national trend of growing 999 activity. It is something that we are monitoring closely as so far this year we are dealing with over 6% more 999 calls than the same period last year.

And whilst we manage the summer pressures, planning for winter has already begun. Through the Association of Ambulance Chief Executives, I have been working hard to make sure that the additional pressure on ambulance services during winter is recognised. I am therefore delighted that an additional £18 million has been set aside for ambulance services – EEAST will receive additional funding of £2million, which will allow us to put in place schemes to better manage the surge in call demand we are likely to experience.

Despite the additional pressures on the service, we continue to make progress. The introduction of the healthcare referral tier (HCRT) is something that has worked really well in the West Midlands and I am pleased it gives our PTS staff an opportunity to develop. So far this month, we have also made contract offers to eight direct entry paramedics and eight direct entry technicians and 61 student paramedics, so that’s 77 additional operational staff recruited just in July to join the frontline.

The table below shows the progress we have made, and will make, month on month in getting more staff on the frontline: 

	Jul-14	Aug-14	Sep-14	Oct-14	Nov-14	Dec-14	Jan-15	Feb-15	Mar-15	Total
Student paramedic	61	36	30	68	24	67	45	46	69	446
Graduate/ direct entry paras	8	12			18	18				56
Direct entry technicians	8			15	15					38
Total new staff (operational)	77	48	30	83	57	85	45	46	69	540

 

These numbers represent contractual offers made and places on future courses.

The restructure is also moving forward, with interviews for the next level of the operations structure taking place for the role of duty locality officers. Sadly a few of our staff have also been told this week that they have been put at risk of redundancy and I would like to reassure you that you have our full support during this time.

All of the difficult decisions we have to make are in pursuit of turning the organisation around and directing as much of our money as possible into frontline staffing and services. So far we are on track to have saved more than £9 million from reducing management and administrative posts – money that is going to help us recruit many more student paramedics next year to keep building our frontline staffing numbers and so that we have a high-performing ambulance service and deliver the best care to our patients by better supporting our staff.