The NHS Innovation Challenge is now open for applications, with a total prize fund of £650,000 to recognise and reward frontline innovation and drive adoption across the NHS.
Remember, your Need to Know is now a website – meaning you can access it from a computer at home, on your smart phone or even a tablet, not just at work.
A special edition of the Joint Emergency Services Interoperability Programme (JESIP) News has been published, as the first phase of the programme draws to a close with 10,000 personnel trained to work more effectively at the scene of major incidents.
If being a solo artist isn’t your thing and you’d like to learn how to sing bass, baritone, lead or tenor, there is a new course for you: learn to sing – and it’s free!
The Channel 202 project, which has promoted the various critical care resources available to frontline staff to help with seriously ill patients, has been shortlisted for a national air ambulance award of excellence.
I had a very productive meeting on Tuesday with Fraer Stevenson, Unison Branch Secretary, to progress our work on pay bandings for operational paramedics and EMTs.
Please note that BT will be carrying out some maintenance work on Friday 26th September from 6.30pm – 1.30am, which will impact the Trust’s card management system (CMS) service.
Paramedic Dave Gregory, from Bury St Edmunds, is taking on a 17-day challenge to trek to Everest base camp to raise money for The Railway Children charity.
Since our new regional telephony system went live our call pick up rate has improved by more than 6% compared to the rest of September. In fact, since go live we have answered more than 96% over our calls within five seconds of connection to the EOCs.
We have had instances recently of staff attempting to free garage doors when they have failed due to a mechanical or electrical fault or vehicular impact.
Stoptober 2014 has enrolled the country’s top comedians to help smokers get through this year’s 28-day quitting challenge and help them quit for good this October.
Next week is National Air Ambulance Week, a week to celebrate and support our local air ambulances in the east of England – East Anglia Air Ambulance, Essex and Herts Air Ambulance and Magpas.
The NHS pensions choice exercise began in January 2010 and gave eligible members the chance to move their pension from the 1995 section of the scheme to the 2008 section.
Today we saw the go live of regional telephony, meaning 999 calls can be moved between our control rooms automatically if all the call handlers in the original EOC are busy.
An emergency operations centre (EOC) call handler and clinical support desk (CSD) clinician have been recognised at a national awards ceremony for their work in Chelmsford and Norwich EOCs.
Staff from clinical, operational, fleet, clinical engineering and technology and telecommunications are working together to ensure the successful rollout of the Trust’s new defibrillators, which started last week in Letchworth.
The College of Paramedics is seeking nominations from members for fellows; someone who is making an exceptional contribution to the furtherance and reputation of the ambulance professions.
An explosives expert from the Royal Navy will be holding a training session about the risks of home-made explosives and showing how easily these can be made from normal household products later this month.
Since the Joint Emergency Services Interoperability Programme (JESIP) began over a year ago, 10,000 staff have received commander training, but what impact is it having?
Responding to elderly patients who have fallen makes up a huge proportion of the 999 calls the Trust attends and can have a huge impact on the quality of life and the future health of the patient.
It's meningitis awareness week! Meningococcal disease is the leading infectious cause of death in early childhood - here we take a look at what it is, the symptoms, and how we treat it.
From 1st October, UK schools will be allowed to keep a salbutamol inhaler for use in emergencies when a child with asthma cannot access their own inhaler.
Newmarket Races, in partnership with Dubai, are offering free grandstand and paddock admission for all emergency services personnel and their families on Friday, 17th October for their Dubai Future Champions Day.
In preparation for the upgrade to the Trust’s computer aided dispatch system (CAD), the Trust will be rolling out a regional software model for the mobile data terminals (MDTs) to replace three slightly different models in use currently.
It’s World Sepsis Day today (13th September) and it’s coincided with the release of a patient safety alert from NHS England to all hospitals, GP surgeries and ambulance services, to advise them of the need to make screening tools available to staff.
A Surrey Coroner has raised concerns about where ambulances are parked during incidents on multi-lane roads or motorways, following the death of a man earlier this year.
Following recent articles on Need to Know, many emergency care assistants (ECAs) have been in touch to ask questions about future courses, allocations for 2015/16 and the process of deciding who goes on courses and when.
Earlier this year, the Trust set up a pathway for patients who are suspected of having an abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) to go to the most appropriate hospital in the east Suffolk area, following the removal of vascular surgery at Ipswich Hospital.
The second awards ceremony of the year is being held in November – and staff and volunteers can play their part in honouring colleagues for outstanding work and support this year.
On Tuesday (9th September) a female member of staff on standby in Essex was approached by a male member of the public who proceeded to make inappropriate comments towards her.
"I have spoken before about how it is of the upmost importance to me to support all staff at the Trust, whether you work on the frontline, in support services, in a control room, primary care and 111 or in PTS..."
Having reviewed the new officer level arrangements in line with the resource allocation guidelines (ESOP 25), guidance has been produced to improve the way the CAD shows availability of on-duty officers.
The Government has set up a review of choices in end of life care to inform and shape national options about how, when and where people receive this care.
More than 900 people were admitted to intensive care during last year’s flu season. Around 89% of those people were under the age of 65, and more than 10% of them lost their lives. These figures are high for a disease that is largely preventable through vaccination.
Another seven dates have been confirmed in October for the pre-entry exam for the emergency care assistant (ECA) to emergency medical technician (EMT) course.
Paramedics are urging people to have their blood pressures checked after referring 10% of people to their GP during free health checks at events across the region.
The Minister of State for Care and Support, Norman Lamb MP, joined Trust staff and members of the public to launch a new defibrillator in a Norfolk Broads village last Friday (29th August).
Violent warning markers are a means of identifying and recording individuals who pose, or could possibly pose, a risk to members of staff who come into contact with them. But they only last for 12-months.
As we’re now in the run up to flu vaccination season, please can you contact the IPC team if you have any drugs fridges in your office, station or EOC (both used and unused).
Every year the Trust provides mandatory training and professional updates to staff, but there is a wealth of other learning opportunities that the Trust offers to staff to help them build their portfolios, skills and continuing professional development (CPD)
The Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) has published revised standards of proficiency for paramedics, which must be met by every paramedic to remain on the HCPC register.
Elizabeth Truss, Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and MP for south west Norfolk, met staff in Swaffham last week to learn more about the service.
The 60 successful ECAs who have been allocated to a technician course in 2015/16 have now all been emailed, which completes the allocations for next year.
The two-week countdown has almost begun for Peterborough paramedics Chris McGregor and Ollie Brook as they prepare to take on 'hurdles from hell' and other obstacles as part of their Rock Solid Challenge.
