East of England Ambulance service in Peterborough apologises to patients after warning notice given by CQC

The CEO of the East of England Ambulance Service – which operates ambulances in Peterborough – has apologised to patients after the CQC issued the service with a warning notice.

The notice was issued to the service (EEAST) last month by the CQC.

The notice reads: “We served a notice under Section 29A of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 on East of England Ambulance Service NHS Trust on 10 February 2025 for failing to meet requirements relating to staff training, staffing levels, investigation and mitigation of controlled drug incidents, call wait times, the culture of the service and acting on information from staff to develop and improve the service.”

Now the boss of the trust has said rapid improvements have been made in light of the notice being given.

EEAST CEO Neill Moloney said: “Our patients expect and deserve good quality care from us. I am sorry that the Trust has not always met this expectation.

“Following the CQC warning notice, we have made rapid improvements in the areas they identified, and we are determined to continue to improve our service to patients."

The trust said that some of the improvements made include a redesigning of the training requirements to be more effective and more specific to individual roles, strengthening controlled drug handling processes and continuing work to improve their culture through values and behaviours.

In January last year, the trust was moved out of special measures by NHS England, after a series of concerns were raised.

It had been placed in special measures in 2020 after a number of concerns about culture, leadership, and governance were raised.

The latest CQC report, published in July 2022, showed significant improvements on long-standing cultural issues. The report recognised the trust’s efforts to improve leadership, culture, and safety for staff.

However, the trust is still rated as ‘Requires Improvement’ by the CQC.