East of England Ambulance Service facts for kids

Quick facts for kids East of England Ambulance Service NHS Trust
Area served by East of England Ambulance Service NHS Trust
Type	NHS trust
Established	1 July 2006
Headquarters	Royston, Hertfordshire
Region served	Norfolk, Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Essex, Hertfordshire and Suffolk
NHS region	NHS England
Area size	7,500 square miles (19,000 km2)
Population	6.2 million
Budget	Approx. £247 million
Chair	Mrunal Sisodia
Chief executive	Tom Abell
Staff	4,780 (2019)

The East of England Ambulance Service NHS Trust (EEAST) is a special organization within the National Health Service (NHS). It provides important ambulance services in the eastern part of England. This includes the counties of Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Essex, Hertfordshire, Norfolk and Suffolk.

EEAST helps about 6.2 million people living in an area of about 7,500 square miles. It is one of ten ambulance services in England. They provide emergency medical services and are funded by the government.

Besides emergency ambulances, EEAST also offers other services. These include non-emergency patient transport. They also handle special operations like emergency planning. This can include responding to incidents with dangerous materials. The service also works with many charity air ambulances. These charities provide doctors for very serious accidents.

EEAST helps organize critical care charities in its area. These include Magpas, Essex & Herts Air Ambulance, and East Anglian Air Ambulance. These teams can be sent out by a special paramedic at the critical care desk. They check every emergency call to decide if a critical care team is needed.

History of EEAST

The East of England Ambulance Service NHS Trust started on 1 July 2006. It was formed by joining three smaller ambulance services. These were the Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire Ambulance Service, the East Anglian Ambulance NHS Trust, and the Essex Ambulance Service.

This merger created a service that covers a large area. It helps 6.2 million people. Each year, it answers around one million emergency calls. The East Anglian Ambulance NHS Trust itself was formed in 1994. It brought together the ambulance services of Cambridgeshire, Norfolk, and Suffolk.

How EEAST Helps (Statistics and Resources)

In 2015/16, EEAST received over one million emergency calls. They also helped with more than 500,000 non-emergency patient journeys. The trust aims to reach emergency calls very quickly.

EEAST has over 4,000 staff members. They also have about 1,500 volunteers who help out.

As of July 2016, the trust uses many different vehicles and locations:

• 357 front-line emergency ambulances
• 201 rapid-response vehicles (RRV)
• 164 non-emergency ambulances for patient transport
• 52 special vehicles for major incidents
• Over 130 ambulance stations and response posts
• 3 ambulance operations centers (control rooms) in Bedford, Chelmsford and Norwich
• 4 training centers for staff

The trust even has its own special driving school. This school teaches drivers how to drive emergency vehicles safely with blue lights and sirens.

EEAST Vehicles

A Land Rover Freelander used as a Rapid Response Vehicle

A Ford Mondeo Rapid Response Vehicle in Hitchin, Hertfordshire

Ambulances

The main ambulances used by EEAST are Mercedes-Benz Sprinter vehicles. These are called Double Staffed Ambulances (DSA). In 2009, the service started to use only Sprinter vehicles. This change was finished in 2016.

More recently, in 2019, the trust started using new, lighter Fiat Ducato ambulances. These new vehicles are slowly replacing the older Mercedes Sprinter ones.

Patient Transport Services

The trust also provides a patient transport service. This service helps patients travel to and from hospitals and healthcare services. This can be for appointments, or when patients are leaving the hospital.

They use vehicles like Citroen Relay, Fiat Ducato and Peugeot Boxer vans. Some of these vehicles can carry several patients. Others can securely hold a wheelchair or a special stretcher. A few of these vehicles even have blue lights and sirens for major incidents.

Air Ambulances

EEAST provides special paramedics called Critical Care Paramedics (CCPs) to three local charity air ambulances. These are Magpas, Essex & Herts Air Ambulance and the East Anglian Air Ambulance. These paramedics work with doctors. They give advanced medical care right at the scene of an accident. It's important to know that while EEAST uses these air ambulances, they do not provide funding for these charities.

Helicopters from the East Anglian Air Ambulance are based in Cambridge and Norwich.

G-HHEM (North Weald) and G-EHEM (Earls Colne) can be dispatched from Essex & Herts Air Ambulance.

Magpas Air Ambulance is based at RAF Wyton.

Tactical Operations Centre

The Tactical Operations Centre (TOC) is like the control hub for EEAST. It keeps an eye on all emergency calls and available resources. It also monitors how busy the system is and if there are delays at hospitals.

The TOC makes sure that any long hospital delays are reported to senior managers. It also houses the Critical Care Desk (CCD). This desk is in charge of sending out the air ambulance teams. There is also an Incident Command Desk supervisor. This person handles special teams like the HART team for major incidents.

Staff roles in this department include:

• Tactical cell assistant (TA)
• Critical care desk dispatcher (CCD)
• Incident command desk supervisor (ICD)
• People and vehicle support hub manager (PVSH/PVSH-M)
• Duty tactical commander (DTC)

Performance and Improvement

Ambulance services are regularly checked by the Care Quality Commission (CQC). This is to make sure they are providing good care. EEAST works hard to meet its targets for responding to emergency calls quickly. They are always looking for ways to improve their services.

The CQC gives ratings to services. These ratings help people understand how well a service is doing. The ratings are:

• Outstanding: The service is doing exceptionally well.
• Good: The service is performing well and meeting expectations.
• Requires improvement: The service needs to get better in some areas.
• Inadequate: The service is performing badly and needs major changes.

Here is how EEAST has been rated by the CQC over the years:

EEAST is always working to improve its services. They focus on making sure patients get the best care possible.

Images for kids

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  A 2010 Mercedes-Benz Sprinter Double Staffed Ambulance (DSA)

See also

• Emergency medical services in the United Kingdom
• Healthcare in Bedfordshire
• Healthcare in Cambridgeshire
• Healthcare in Essex
• Healthcare in Hertfordshire
• Healthcare in Norfolk