Welcome from our Chair
The past year has been a period of constant change and adaption as we again worked hard to maintain the high quality of care that our communities expect.
It is heart-warming to reflect on the efforts of all our people during this demanding time and to acknowledge the commitment and compassion offered by all our colleagues and volunteers to patients and the wider communities that we serve.
It is also testament to our strong relationships with our regional partners from all sectors, and the public, that we were able to tackle the tough challenges thrown at us, together, in a collaborative way. Collaboration is the only way to ensure the delivery of excellent care.
This would not have been possible without the resilience, positive attitude and willingness to go above and beyond for our patients and each other. The continued support and patience of our communities and their families has been remarkable as we strive to provide outstanding care with exceptional people, every hour of every day.
I want to say thank you from the Board.
Whilst our plans for the year needed to remain responsive to the situations we faced, we have maintained a constant focus on quality, people and sustainability in line with our goals.
Given the difficult circumstances our teams have been working in and continue to do so, it is extremely reassuring that our results in the latest staff survey revealed that we obtained improvements to the satisfaction rate of staff, making EEAST the top organisation out of all seven ambulance Trusts for the level of year-on-year improvement. I feel this is an endorsement of the work we have done with colleagues to change our culture through tangible actions, that permit continuous improvements to be made.. We recognise that there is still a considerable way to go to make EEAST not only a good place to work, but a great place to develop your career.
I firmly believe that positive colleague and patient experience go hand in hand, which is why ensuring our people are happy and supported is crucial. We will continue to work with teams to improve and ensure we support colleague wellbeing as best we can, so in turn they can provide the best care to our patients.
This is the last time I’ll write this welcome as I come to the end of my term, and I want to thank all my Board member colleagues for their support and sharing constructive concern and challenge to ensure we continued our resolve to deliver on our goals. I want to mention Tom Abell, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) for his support and for consistently role modelling the patient focus and compassion needed to deliver compassionate leadership.
I hope this annual report enables you to understand our Trust, the key risks to the achievements of our goals and how we have performed over the year. It is also an opportunity to celebrate the dedication and commitment of our colleagues and volunteers and recognise the safe, caring service that they provide across the east of England.
Nicola Scrivings
Trust Chair
