Thomas's Journey - EOC Duty Manager

Thomas Pont is a duty manager in one of our emergency operation centres (EOCs) and has been with the Trust for 7 years.

Having worked in care for some time I found that the career prospects were very limited and so I decided to join the East of England Ambulance Service Trust (EEAST) as an emergency call handler in 2016. A few years prior to this I became a community first responder (CFR) for the Trust whilst still working in various roles in care homes. I wanted a role where I could feel that I made a difference to someone's life, but that I could also progress and develop my own career.

During my time at EEAST I have progressed through several different roles including senior call handler and call handler team leader, before becoming a duty manager back in 2021. I have faced some challenges throughout my career journey, and nobody has ever become a duty manager without first being a dispatcher or dispatch team leader. These are roles I have never held, although I have now completed my dispatch training as part of this role, and now have bank contracts for both dispatcher and dispatch team leader.

Working here is tough but rewarding. Every day you hear and experience people in the very worst moments of their lives, hovering between life and death, however as individuals and as a team we pull together and sometimes make miracles happen.

I love the fact that we really do care as a team, we work together to make amazing things happen. You come to work every day without knowing what the next few hours holds in store, but you know that whatever happens everyone will pull together and try to do the impossible.

Working within the ambulance service opens a wide range of different doors. There are so many departments and positions, you really could end up working anywhere you want to within the Trust!