The East of England Ambulance Service NHS Trust Charitable Funds

The Charity is a separate legal entity from EEAST, with the Trust being the corporate trustee for the charity. The charity exists as a result of donations, support from fundraising activities, legacy giving, and opportunities from grant programmes. The work of the charity enhances that of the Trust and is intended to be beyond that ordinarily afforded by the NHS.

Some of the 2022-23 highlights include:

Supporting our staff

£8k was allocated to support two additional trauma risk management (TRiM) courses, funded from an NHS Charities Together grant, helped increase the number of trained TRiM practitioners able to assist colleagues following possible exposure to trauma. This funding supported 14 new foundation practitioners for the Essex region and 18 for Norfolk.

The charity continued to support the creation of numerous wellbeing gardens across the Trust, and local stations created enriching outdoor spaces with planters, benches, gazebos and foliage, as well as refreshing tired break out rooms with plants, pictures and recreational items all to provide colleagues and volunteers with a more pleasant area for relaxation.

Community support

The Charity supported volunteer community first responders (CFR), providing uniform, additional CFR equipment and community automated emergency defibrillators (AEDs). The CFR groups actively fundraise to support their local communities, using donations to positively influence and raise awareness of the work they do on behalf of EEAST.

The Charity also provided a a CFR PLUS app to CFRs. The app provides reference and reassurance for responders in their role along with essential resources to aid understanding.

£19k funded replacement pads for iPad AEDs, which were originally placed in the community as part of a Trust initiative to improve response times to cardiac arrests in the hard-to-reach areas of our region. This funding ensured the devices remained fit for purpose and can continue to be used to support patients.

Working with NHS Charities Together

The projects supported by grants awarded from NHS Charities Together in 2021/22, progressed well during the year, both projects are focused around patient care and are delivering significant impact.

Our unmet needs pilot had two full time unmet needs navigators helping to signpost patients who have additional non-clinical needs to access the support services they require. In the first six months of the scheme, 500 patients and their families were signposted to community support.

This new referral pathway was embraced at EEAST by ambulance crews, community first responders and clinicians in control rooms as they often see patients who require additional help beyond what the ambulance service and NHS can immediately offer.

The second project provided falls equipment for eighteen targeted CFR groups and provided initial falls training and on-going annual re-certification training to volunteers. Six new CFR roving cars were also funded, all fully equipped with falls and CFR response kit and fully trained falls volunteers.

The Charity successfully secured a £30k grant to support its development a programme of work supported by this grant is planned for 2023/24.