Update from Anthony Marsh - 25th June 2015

On Sunday we declared a major incident after 38 patients were affected by a chlorine leak at a holiday park in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk. We were on scene in five minutes and sent various resources, including six ambulance crews, three officers, the East Anglian Air Ambulance and the hazardous area response team from Melbourn. I am very pleased to share with you a quote from MP for Great Yarmouth, Brandon Lewis, who has praised our response:

“Our emergency services again did us proud in their work at Belton.

“The ambulance service gave a clear reminder of the fantastic work they can do. Working with police and fire service the situation was under control and the area returned to normal in phenomenal time.

“We are lucky to have such fantastic people serving our communities in Great Yarmouth and Norfolk.”

I am delighted Mr Lewis has particularly recognised our staff and I would like to extend my thanks to all who attended, everyone who worked on the incident in the control room, those who managed the incident and the communications team for dealing with the extensive media coverage.

Last week the UK women’s cycle tour started in our region, involving the Trust for five days as the peloton took in several counties and involved all three EOCs and many staff. I would like to thank Resilience Manager Craig for the excellent preparation for this event, which meant it went smoothly and that there was no impact on the Trust’s normal working processes as a result, even with a high-profile accident at the end of stage one when Lizzie Armistead crashed on the finish line.

Next week we will have the opportunity to thank many of you on a larger scale as we celebrate the long service and excellence awards on Wednesday evening in Suffolk. I am really looking forward to this prestigious event and seeing so many of you receive the Queen’s Medal, your individual long service awards and chief officer commendations. As always, it is extremely important to me and the Board to honour your contribution to patient care and we hope you all enjoy the evening – there will be full coverage on the Need to Know site next Thursday.

Finally I would like to say well done to UNISON representatives and members of the HR team who have passed their two-day job evaluation and job analysis training with the NHS staff council. This now gives us greater capacity across the Trust to undertake this important evaluation and analysis work and I am pleased that we have worked closely with UNISON to achieve this.

Published 25th June 2015