Need to know
For #TeamEEAST Last updated: 20 April 2024 at 10:34
I want to take a moment this week to reflect on the commitment and support of our volunteers, be they community first responders, co-responders, chaplains, ambulance car drivers or trust user group members.
Our volunteers play a tremendous role in providing patient care, supporting colleagues and helping develop our services for the future. When I joined, I was pleased with the huge amount of volunteers we have and their enthusiasm for what they do. Indeed, when we held our first volunteer engagement forum in January that enthusiasm came through so clearly, and we talked at length about our ideas for how we better support and use our volunteers.
Our aim is to set up a volunteer advisory forum (VAF), which would be made up of volunteer representatives from each area of volunteering. To support this, and to promote the work of our volunteers and to attract more people to join us, we also want to set up a volunteer support unit (VSU). We had hoped to have both the volunteer advisory forum and the volunteer support unit up and running by now. Unfortunately, this has not been possible as we have had to give all our focus to improving our service to patients, both in terms of the quality and responsiveness of our services.
As a positive step forward, Gary Morgan, Head of EOC will be taking over responsibility for CFRs on the 1st July next. Gary is a strong advocate for CFRs and is proud to be a responder in his own community.
Next steps will be to address the leadership and direction of our Community Collaboration team.
The Team are anxious to have a clear focus on the work programme we set out to volunteers on the 16th January last as well as roll out new Co Responder and Community First Responder Schemes where there is a clear evidence based need.
Over the summer, these changes will enable us to redouble our efforts to move forward our volunteer programme and how we support it through the proposed VAF and VSU.
In other news, Cromer station will be opening its doors to the public on Sunday (3rd) as part of its much-anticipated annual open day. It’s a great opportunity to give people a behind scenes look at how we work and meet some of our fantastic team, and we’ll also be joined by our emergency service colleagues. A lot of hard work and effort has gone into organising the event, with all proceeds going to Nelson’s Journey, a charity that supports bereaved children in Norfolk. I understand that hundreds of people attended last year; due to family commitments I’m disappointed that I won’t be able to attend in person this time round, but I wish the team all the best for what will no doubt be a great day.
Have a good week,
Robert
Published 30th June, 2016