Update from Sandy Brown - 13th August

I start this message with exciting news, as Robert Morton has been announced as our new Chief Executive. You can read more here, but Robert has worked in ambulance services across the world for nearly 25 years and is an incredibly experienced CEO; his first day with us will be 24^th August and I know you’ll give him a very warm welcome to the ‘EEAST family’. 

I’ve been with the organisation for six months now; I know that compared with a lot of you that still makes me relatively new to EEAST, but that six months has shown me a lot about this ambulance service and its people. 

This is a great organisation with a great future, with staff who are passionate about the care we provide - thank you all for your incredible hard work. 

We’ve already started to move into a new phase - one where quality, clinical outcomes and our patients are truly at the heart of all our decisions. Performance is an intrinsic part of our role, but the clinical care given to people, whether that be advice over the phone or treatment in person (both emergency and non-emergency) is also extremely important. 

We should all be very proud to work somewhere that makes such a huge difference to people’s lives, and we all have our part to play; whatever your role, whatever the setting, if you do your bit well you’re helping to make sure that when that person calls us we give them the right care, support and treatment they need. 

And I want you to have a say in that quality care. You’ll see in a separate article that myself and the clinical quality team will be visiting stations and offices over the next few months, to talk to you about what you think of safety and quality here at EEAST. So what does the service do well? What should we be doing differently? Tell us, and in turn we promise to listen; next week we’re launching a late finishes pilot that was suggested and devised by frontline and EOC staff– so keep talking to us. 

Have a great week.

Sandy Brown, Deputy CEO & Director of Clinical Quality

Published 13th August, 2015