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Issue 8 2015
This issue’s guest writer
hayden newton
was the Chief Executive
Officer of East of
England Ambulance
Service (EEAST) for six
years until early 2013.
Whilst at EEAST he
was the National Lead
for Operations and
has undertaken national assurance projects on winter
planning, pandemic flu, and most recently the London
2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
Prior to his appointment he was the National
Implementation Lead at the Department of Health on
the development and implementation of ambulance
performance standards. He is also a former Chief
Executive of Kent Ambulance Service. He has been
Chairman of the Association of Air Ambulances
and President of the British Association of Public
Communication Officers.
He was also an Ambulance Paramedic on frontline
duties and is currently an elected member of the Asian
EMS Council, the only UK representative on the Council.
to ever more restricted budgets,
and ‘business as usual’ has to
carry on despite the constant state
of flux in the sector. Over the next
three to five years, the sector will
be looking to integrate changes
arriving from several directions.
These could include:
»
»
Existing patient transport service
contracts being provided by the
private and or voluntary sector to
reduce costs and to demonstrate
best value
»
»
A greater emphasis on “hear
and treat” as opposed to “see
and treat” as commissioners
introduce lower “see and treat”
tariffs per call to reduce costs
and push to reduce the number
of patients admitted to Accident
& Emergency departments
»
»
The private or the voluntary
sector, through formal contract
arrangements, responding to a
greater share of emergency calls
»
»
A greater reliance on family
carers, volunteers, neighbours
and others to support older
people in their homes. Volunteers
in the community are a cost
effective way of providing
emergency care in rural parts
»
»
Back office functions in ambulance
trusts reviewed and reduced even
further to strengthen frontline
staffing budgets
The role of new technology
There is no doubt that new
technology has a major part to play
in assisting ambulance services to
meet their obligations in the face
of reducing budgets and shifting
operational models. In particular,
the arrival of communications
technology that will enable
broadband data services promises
great potential for the health sector.
A
mbulance services have
evolved rapidly since
their inception in 1977,
with perhaps the major change
being the merger of the English
Ambulance Services in 2006 from
31 to 11 NHS Regional Trusts.
Whilst they remain an integral
part of the NHS, the ambulance
services are key partners to the other
emergency services for resilience
and emergency preparedness,
and have developed specialist
operational response units to
deal with a range of different
incidents ranging from flooding to
mass casualty situations. These
units help support the additional
legal requirements ambulance
services now have under the Civil
Contingencies Act of 2004.
Today, ambulance services are very
large regional organisations and deal
with more than six million emergency
calls each year. However, they face a
number of challenges, some brought
about by changes in the NHS and
others by demographic and physical
changes to the population they serve.
The issues facing ambulance
services and the emergency and
urgent care sector have remained
nearly the same for a number of
years. Broadly, these are:
»
»
Improving clinical quality whilst
improving efficiencies
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»
Improving patient safety
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»
Achieving performance against
key standards for the 999 service
»
»
Implementing cost improvement
programmes within a flat-cash
budget
All these issues are interrelated and
if one starts to fall below the agreed
standard it will have a domino effect
on the others.
Maintaining levels of service
is increasingly challenging due
The role of communications
technology in meeting the
challenges of change
All our emergency services are
facing unprecedented challenge
and change. In this article Hayden
Newton, former Chief Executive
Officer of the East of England
Ambulance Service (EEAST), looks
at the role of the ambulance services,
how they are having to evolve to
meet a number of different and at
times competing demands, and how
new communications technology
can be an enabler for increased
efficiencies and higher standards.
