Update from Dr Anthony Marsh - April 10, 2014

I am delighted that the first student paramedic course started on Monday (7^th April) in Norwich. This marks a new start for us and we welcome our new recruits as they begin their training to become state registered paramedics. As I said when I first joined, we have 300 frontline vacancies and recruiting student paramedics is the best way to tackle the issue. The extra staff will be advocates of EEAST; they will be trained by us and will be mentored and work alongside you, so please support them. The next advert for new recruits was published on Monday and we are capping this intake at 500 applications. We are particularly looking for applicants from west Norfolk, south Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire so if you are in this area and know people who are considering applying, please encourage them to do so.

The Trust Board has reviewed and approved the new director structure, which has led to the appointment of two new locality directors, as published in Need to Know last week. The third locality director post will be filled this month and we have also started the recruitment process for the finance director. The structures below director level are now being reviewed and finalised by the executive team with the management posts in operations due to be filled during April and May. The other directorate structures will also be implemented in the first quarter of this financial year. I will continue to update you as much as possible and as always, appreciate your patience during this time.

At the last executive team meeting, we agreed to increase the professional update programme to two classroom days for this year. This is our commitment to giving you the time to step back and refresh your learning and I hope you will look forward to the opportunity, as we drive for better standards of patient care. More details about what will be included will be in Need to Know soon.

I have been really touched by people getting in contact to congratulate me on receiving the Queen’s Ambulance Service Medal (QAM) on Friday (4^th April) at Buckingham Palace. Whilst I am extremely honoured to receive the award, it is a real reflection of the collective efforts of everyone I work with at the ambulance service. Every day we save lives and treat patients at often their greatest time of need and I am immensely proud of the job we do.