Support for region’s ‘amazing’ ambulance service

QEH General Views of the outside of the hospital ANL-150525-110904009

More than 100 people who received emergency medical help in September responded to questionnaires with 97 per cent saying they were very satisfied or satisfied with the service they received.

Patients described ambulance staff as “very professional”, “amazing”, “faultless”, “very reassuring”, and “wonderful” in the latest patient experience report, which was published this week.

More than 95 per cent of respondents rated the handling of the 999 call by the East of England Ambulance Service NHS Trust (EEAST) as very acceptable or acceptable.

And almost 90 per cent said the length of time they had to wait for the service to arrive as very acceptable or acceptable with almost 100% very satisfied or satisfied with the care they received from staff.

Nine out of ten respondents described the comfort of their journey in an ambulance as very comfortable or comfortable and 96 per cent said the service exceeded or met their expectations.

Robert Morton, EEAST chief executive, who was appointed earlier this year, said: “I’m delighted that these results reflect the organisation’s ethos of being innovative, responsive and excellent.

“I’d like to pay tribute to all the hard working patient facing staff across the East of England and to our support staff without whose excellent work we would not be able to deliver our services as effectively as we clearly do.

“We really value the feedback from our patients.”

The EEAST has been criticised by patients’ watchdogs for failing to meet response times to life-threatening 999 calls.

In January this year it was discovered that thousands of emergency calls were downgraded, leaving people with potentially life-threatening conditions waiting for longer to be treated.

The EEAST was fined £1.2 million for failing to reach 75 per cent of life-threatening emergencies within eight minutes in 2014, but exceeded that target this year.

Recruitment drives for student paramedics have taken place in a bid to bolster resources in order to cope with the increasing demand on the service.