North East Ambulance Service appoints new Chief Executive
North East Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust (NEAS) has appointed Helen Ray as its new Chief Executive.
Helen joins the organisation from Northumbria Healthcare, where she has been the Chief Operating Officer since that post was formed in July 2018, overseeing urgent and emergency care, medicine, child health and community services with Board level responsibility and emergency planning and preparedness.
Helen, who brings a wealth of knowledge and skill from across the NHS with 36 years’ experience, replaces Yvonne Ormston MBE, who left in May to become Chief Executive at Gateshead Health NHS Foundation Trust.
NEAS Chairman Peter Strachan said: "I believe Helen’s experience makes her ideally placed to lead our service and work with our partners across the region to deliver high quality care to local people. I know she brings a passion for patient care and staff wellbeing, which are integral to our Trust values.
“I would also like to acknowledge the tremendous efforts of our interim Chief Executive Paul Liversidge, who stepped up from Chief Operating Officer following Yvonne’s departure and has given our service a steady transition and will continue to be a crucial part of our senior leadership team in the future.”
Helen said: "I am absolutely delighted to be appointed to a high performing ambulance trust. I am keen to further support the staff in the great care that they provide. I am also keen to explore how we can continue to further improve and develop services together with patients and other stakeholders.”
Helen has previously been joint managing executive director (operations) for North Cumbria acute and community services; deputy chief executive for North Cumbria University Hospitals and Chief Operating Officer for South Tyneside NHS Foundation Trust. She trained as a nurse and has held a professional registration for 30 years.
Notes to editors
Notes to editors
For more information, contact the NEAS press office on 07559 918672 or email publicrelations@neas.nhs.uk
About North East Ambulance Service
North East Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust (NEAS) covers 3,200 square miles across the North East region. It employs more than 2,600 staff and serves a population of 2.7 million people by handling all NHS111 and 999 calls for the region, operating patient transport and ambulance response services, delivering training for communities and commercial audiences and providing medical support cover at events.
In 2017/18 the service answered over 1.4 million emergency 999 and NHS 111 calls, responded to 280,00 incidents that resulted in a patient being taken to hospital, treated and discharged 27,000 patients with telephone advice and treated and discharged over 100,000 patients at home. In the same year, clinical crews responded to 126,746 of our highest priority patients within the national targets and scheduled care crews completed almost 580,000 patient transport journeys.