Blog
Welcome to our blog spot!
We will be posting our guest blogs from our staff, volunteers and about our campaigns and awareness days.
01 December 2023
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Mental health isn’t really something that is associated with children and whilst there is less of a ‘taboo’ around the subject now, 16 years ago it wasn’t spoken about, which was probably why nobody could recognise what was going on with me.
At t...
29 November 2023
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Hi everyone, my name is Ashleigh I am one of the internal communications officers at EEAST. I first joined the Trust back in 2005 when it was still Essex Ambulance Service, so technically you could say I have been with the Trust since day one!
My...
30 October 2023
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This month, we’ve been sharing some truly inspiring pieces from our colleagues. They have been thought-provoking reads, and we thank you all for appreciating these important messages.
Today we are sharing the last of this series – a beautifully p...
30 October 2023
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This month, we have been celebrating Black History Month. This is an opportunity for all of us to honour the achievements, contributions, and rich cultural heritage of Black people throughout history and today.
Inclusivity is key for our organisa...
26 October 2023
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This week, EEAST BME Network chair Tanoh Danso shares a tribute to his mum.
“I’m only doing what’s best for you.”
A phrase we’ve most likely all heard and some even used! It’s one that easily hits top 3 in the matriarchy that I grew up in.
...
20 October 2023
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Memorialising our Matriarchs
Black History Month’s theme of #Salutingoursisters got me thinking about our mums, our matriarchs and their contributions to who I am. In my mother tongue (Yoruba) we have a saying Iya ni wura, translated Mother is go...
13 October 2023
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During this Black History Month, we asked members of #TeamEEAST to share a message.
Today we have Caroline Nwadu, Head of Culture and Inclusivity, sharing her commitment to creating an inclusive and welcoming environment for all.
Hello, my n...
13 October 2023
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During this Black History Month, we asked members of #TeamEEAST to share a message.
“You may shoot me with your words,
You may cut me with your eyes,
You may kill me with your hatefulness,
But still, like air, I’ll rise.”
- Dr Maya Ang...
05 October 2023
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By Dr. Hein Scheffer – Director of Strategy, Culture and Education
October 2023
The history of EDI in the NHS
Over the past 20 years, the NHS has spent a great deal of time focusing on the issue of inclusivity and equality – and rightly so gi...
11 August 2023
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Everything we say the way we say it and how we behave all reflect our own personal values. At a personal level, clearly this impacts our families and friends primarily – but in the workplace the way that we express our views and thoughts is equally i...
14 June 2023
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One of our managers stopped me on the stairs recently to tell me that they’d got a colleague’s name wrong. No big deal, perhaps, and something that many of us do in the working day. Only in this case it was. They’d juxtaposed the names of the two fem...
31 May 2023
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Pride – ‘a party with a purpose’?
~ Dr Hein Scheffer
Originally, I wanted to write about the history of Pride. However, as I did some research and shared an early draft with a friend of mine, I realised that in just looking at a h...
04 May 2023
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April 2023 marked a year that I have been working at EEAST, and during this past year, I chaired several senior leadership group meetings. These are aimed to update our senior leadership group with developments in the Trust, but also to create an op...
09 December 2021
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My name is Zoe, I have Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD) with an Asperger’s profile. I was diagnosed in adulthood following diagnosis of my children which brought a realisation that their condition had been inherited from me. I hid my condition for a...
01 December 2021
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I recently decided to update my CV.
I started In the Ambulance Service 19 years ago, aged 18. I joined as a 999 Call Handler based in Norwich. I remember picking up my A level results in my uniform because I was due on shift afterwards.
M...
01 December 2021
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I've always wanted to be a Paramedic since I was about 13, there i am once again in the back of the bumpy bouncy and noisy ambulance puffing through the Entonox and more time off school again. So much pain but that’s all you got back then. It’s my Hi...
07 February 2020
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Beau Leonard, Apprentice Emergency Care Support Worker shares his journey for National Apprenticeship Week 2020.
My name is Beau and I have recently begun a new apprenticeship within the East of England Ambulance Service (EEAST) that is working f...
30 October 2019
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To mark the end of Black History Month, Adeshina Oseni, Cloud Technologies Specialist from the Information Management & Technology (IM&T) team tells us what it's like to be a dual nationality parent at EEAST:
Mary Seacole exemplifies us a...
15 October 2019
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As part of Black History Month, EEAST paramedic, Tanoh Danso, talks about his Ghanaian heritage, career and diversity within the Trust:
This month marks five years since joining East of England Ambulance Service, qualifying as a paramedic two yea...
01 October 2019
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Luton based student paramedic, Teodora Badiu has featured in the latest episode of the 'Being Muslim' YouTube docu-series, talking about how her faith has influenced her life and career.
My name is Teodora Badiu and I am a Student Paramedic based...
24 June 2019
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Saturday 29th June is the start of Armed Forces Week 2019. Terry Hicks, Head of Operations for Norfolk and Waveney is also our armed forces champion.
My name is Terry Hicks and I’m the head of operations for Norfolk & Waveney. I am also the T...
04 December 2017
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Shelley Moore has worked as an emergency call handler for two years.
What has been your favourite/ most memorable call?
I think my most memorable call was from a young girl who found her dad on the sofa, agonal breathing. Her sister was upsta...
28 November 2017
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Ian Watkins, who has worked for the ambulance service for almost 10 years, is an Emergency Medical Technician based at Chelmsford.
It happened on 15th March 2017 in Chelmsford at about 8.30am. We were called to a man in his 30s found on the side...
27 November 2017
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Student paramedic Gemma Brucher has worked for EEAST for four years and is based at Cheshunt, Hertfordshire. In May she was dispatched to a report of a man who had taken a suspected overdose in Hoddesdon.
I have been shouted at and had verbal abu...
01 August 2017
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Waveney-based paramedic Ben Law was part of the first cohort to be recruited as a student paramedic in 2014.
What were your expectations of the ambulance service before you joined and what was it like in reality working on the front-line?
Bef...
12 May 2017
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Sarah Roche has been nursing in mental health for around 16 years and proudly works as one of two nurses on the national award-nominated Mental Health Street Triage team in Bedfordshire, on behalf of the East London Foundation Trust (ELFT).
I joi...
11 May 2017
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Ahead of Mental Health Awareness Week, Media Officer Jake Asby spent a shift with the national award-nominated Mental Health Street Triage team in Bedfordshire.
I’ve always felt passionate about mental health, and have been delighted with the not...
09 May 2017
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Ahead of Mental Health Awareness Week, Paramedic Lisa Merkitt has written about her experience working as part of the national award-nominated Mental Health Street Triage in Bedfordshire.
I joined EEAST in 2008 as an ambulance support worker in H...
In August 2016, Essex resident John Michaels set off for work on his motorcycle, but little did he know he would never make it there…
It was the 25th August when I was hit by a car. I was hit so hard my leg was seriously injured and I was catapul...
Our Trust User Group (TUG) represents the voice for ambulance service users, and members are volunteers from around the region. They work with the Patient and Public Involvement team to be ambassadors in the community, and Julie is one of its longest...
Chris Barnes talks about the role of the Duty EOC Officer within the control room.
Hi, I’m Chris Barnes, a Duty EOC officer in Norwich EOC. I've been been with the ambulance service for almost nine years now.
My background before joinin...
Ahead of EOCTakeover week, we approached Ashleigh, to write about her then role as Call Handler Team Leader.
Hi everyone, my name is Ashleigh and I am a Call Handler Team Leader based out of the Chelmsford Emergency Operations Centre. I fir...
James is a dispatcher working within one of our emergency operation centres. Here he talks about himself and his role within the ambulance service.
I joined the ambulance service back in 2012, first as agency staff and then becoming a permanent e...
Helen began her ambulance service career as a call handler, a role that most people are familiar with. Now working within the EOC Audit team, Helen's guest blog for EOC Takeover week tells us a bit about this lesser known role as part of the EOC team...
Phil has worked in the ambulance service for 17 years. Here he tells us about his career, his role as a trainer and what makes the job tick.
I started working in EOC after four years as an ambulance technician at Cambridge. I had been interested ...
Chris Connor, paramedic at EEAST, talks about what it is like working at over the festive Christmas period for the ambulance service.
I have worked for the Trust for 10 years and a paramedic for five years. I currently work out of our stati...
29 September 2016
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Shauna Tate became a community first responder in August after wanting to give something back after her two-year-old son was treated for sepsis.
Why did you decide to become a CFR?
After spending a period of time in hospital with my son who h...
10 August 2016
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Shelley Moore has been a call handler for the East of England Ambulance Service NHS Trust (EEAST) for a year...
Tell us about an average shift and the types of calls you get?
I am not sure that there is such a thing as an average shift ...
20 July 2016
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Jayne Biggs, who has set up Heart 2 Heart Norfolk, talks about the importance of defibrillators....
Our daughter Violet suffered a sudden cardiac arrest when she was seven-years-old on 23rd February 2013 in her sleep.
I heard her cough upstai...
09 June 2016
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Mike Poulton, a member of Wroxham and Hoveton CFRs, has volunteered to help the ambulance service for the last five years…
One day my wife noticed a CFR visiting one of our neighbours and she said "you could that". It was as simple as that, so I ...
09 June 2016
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David Halsey, of Haverhill, Kedington and Hundon Community First Responders, said…
I have been a responder for five years, on average I do 96 hours per month. I became a responder as I was diagnosed with an illness, and at the same time I saw an...
08 June 2016
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Claire Taylor, 26, is a PA in Cambridge by day and is a CFR in Ely…
I became a volunteer in May 2014 and on average I volunteer for around 20 hours a month.
I wanted to know that if anyone in my family or anyone around me became suddenly unwe...
08 June 2016
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Danny Ayling, is a group co-ordinator for Holland/Clacton CFRs…
I have been a CFR for three years, in the last year I have become a student paramedic so I try to do as many as I can, around 5+ hours a week.
A career in pre-hospital care was a...
07 June 2016
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Sharon Smith is the co-ordinator of Newgate Street CFRs in Hertfordshire...
I became a CFR in December 2014 and I average 75 hours a month and attend on average one patient a week. It's not a big time commitment.
I live in a remote village a ...
06 June 2016
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Adrian Garnham is a volunteer with Stutton and Holbrook Community First Responders in Suffolk...
When I first started as a responder, I was working full-time in Ipswich as a bus driver so I would book on during my time off, usually about 10 hours...
03 June 2016
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Sam Guy, a community first responder (CFR) for the Cambourne area of Cambridgeshire, talks about why he volunteers…
I currently work as a 999 call handler at the ambulance service’s Bedford emergency operations centre (EOC) dealing with potentia...
01 June 2016
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Hugh Kingwell talks about why he became a volunteer for EEAST's Trust User Group (TUG)
I am 77-years-old and I have been a diabetic since June 2002. I had a heart attack in June 2014 and two attacks of DVT and currently I have an aortic aneurysm...
Emergency care has captured the interest of millions as Sky 1’s Air Ambulance ER went behind the scenes to follow the work of Britain’s air ambulance services.
The fly-on-the-wall documentary, the next of which airs tonight (Monday, 18th April) ...
Dan Phillips, EEAST Area Clinical Lead, talks about the importance of getting help to stroke patients quickly.
What is ambulance service best practice/ treatment when the Trust receives a 999 call about a suspected stroke?
A person should cal...
What happens and what are the main functions of CCD?
The main functions of the critical care desk (CCD) is to look after the critical care resources within the East of England, which includes five HEMS (Helicopter Emergency Medical Service) teams...