East of England Ambulance Service
The East of England Ambulance Service NHS Trust is the authority responsible for providing National Health Service (NHS) ambulance services in the counties of Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Essex, Hertfordshire, Norfolk and Suffolk, in the East of England region. It is one of 12 Ambulance Trusts providing England with emergency medical services, and is part of the NHS, receiving direct government funding for its role. There is no charge to patients for use of the service, and under the Patient's Charter every person in the United Kingdom has the right to the attendance of an ambulance in an emergency.
As well as providing an emergency ambulance service, the Trust also provides out-of-hours primary care services, patient transport, commercial services and special operations such as air ambulances, emergency planning, and hazardous materials incident response.[1]
The Trust controls the mobilisation of Immediate Care charities throughout its area. These include Magpas, SARS, NARS and East Anglian Air Ambulance.[2]
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[edit] History
The trust was formed on 1 July 2006 following the three-way merger of the Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire Ambulance and Paramedic Service NHS Trust, the East Anglian Ambulance NHS Trust, and the Essex Ambulance Service NHS Trust. The result was a service covering an area of over 7,500 square miles (19,000 km2) with a population of 5.8 million people, and one which answers over 500,000 emergency calls per year.[3]
The East Anglian Ambulance NHS Trust was formed in 1994 from the three-way merger of Cambridgeshire, Norfolk and Suffolk Ambulance Services.[4]
In 2009, the Trust was censured by the Care Quality Commission after inspection of an ambulance depot and seven of its 100 ambulance stations found patient-carrying vehicles were "dirty" and that staff were "unsure of basic measures for infection prevention and control". The service launched an "urgent and comprehensive review" of its ambulance cleaning programme and reiterated its stance on patient safety, adding that "ensuring consistent high standards of cleanliness is a challenge" with so many stations, covering six counties and an area of 7,500 square-miles.[5]
[edit] Statistics and resources
In 2009/10, the Trust mobilised to 668,451 999 emergency calls, including 207,626 high-priority "category A" emergencies. It arrived at 75.67% of these category A calls within eight minutes, and 96.04% within 19 minutes.[1]
The Trust has the following resources in operation:[6]
- 273 emergency ambulances
- 237 non-emergency ambulances
- 215 marked rapid-response cars
- 25 major incident support vehicles; decontamination equipment, and mobile control rooms
- 110 ambulance stations and response posts
- 3 Health Emergency Operations Centres (control rooms) in Bedford, Chelmsford and Norwich
The Trust provides its own in-house driving school, which has trained over 220 drivers in emergency driving.[1]
The Trust employs 3,994 people, including 2,516 involved in frontline accident and emergency operations.[1]
[edit] See also
- Emergency medical services in the United Kingdom
- Magpas
- Suffolk Accident Rescue Service
- East Anglian Air Ambulance
Other emergency services covering the East of England:
- Bedfordshire and Luton Fire and Rescue Service
- Bedfordshire Police
- Cambridgeshire Fire and Rescue Service
- Cambridgeshire Constabulary
- Essex Air Ambulance
- Essex County Fire and Rescue Service
- Essex Police
- Hertfordshire Fire and Rescue Service
- Hertfordshire Constabulary
- Norfolk Fire and Rescue Service
- Norfolk Constabulary
- Suffolk Fire and Rescue Service
- Suffolk Constabulary
[edit] References
- ^ a b c d [1]
- ^ List of Care Schemes in East of England BASICS, Accessed 18/10/2010
- ^ East of England Ambulance Service
- ^ EAAT welcomes ambulance merger East Anglian Ambulance NHS Trust, 16 May 2006
- ^ http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/6254517/Patients-at-risk-of-infection-from-dirty-ambulances.html
- ^ http://www.eastamb.nhs.uk/about-us/key-facts-1
[edit] External links
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