North East Ambulance Service Chief Executive Helen Ray Retirement
North East Ambulance Service (NEAS) chief executive, Helen Ray, has formally announced her retirement from her post at the end of March 2025, after 42 years working in the NHS.
Helen began her NHS career in 1983 when she trained as a nurse. She held a professional registration for 30 years.
She joined the NEAS in 2019 from Northumbria Healthcare, where she had been the Chief Operating Officer since that post was formed in July 2018. There, her responsibilities included overseeing urgent and emergency care, medicine, child health and community services with Board level responsibility and emergency planning and preparedness.
She had 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 said, “I’ve had an amazing career, and it is a privilege to be ending my career as CEO of the North East Ambulance Service, having spent the past five years here.
“I won’t pretend it’s been easy, having spent the first two and a bit working through the pandemic and the last few recovering and resetting to help NEAS to move into a better place, for both the population we serve and all the people at NEAS who make this the most fantastic service – our colleagues, including our volunteers , governors and our students.
“It has been a rollercoaster, but I’ve enjoyed immensely.”
Over the duration of her post at NEAS, Helen spearheaded significant investment to help improve the service for patients, led the service’s response to the Covid pandemic across the region and addressed scrutiny over issues of service quality and safety by responding positively to areas of improvement and change.
She concludes, “I think the whole service is amazing, from patient transport and urgent and emergency care to all the functions of our emergency operations centre, emergency preparedness resilience and response team, right across all our amazing corporate support teams, our volunteers, students and governors.
“Both individual and collectively, they are what makes NEAS thrive.
“I know NEAS will continue to go from strength to strength and I will retain a sense of pride whenever I see one of the vehicles out and about safe in the knowledge that if my family need them, they will receive the very best care.
“The NHS is continuously changing and evolving, growing and learning, but at the heart of it is always the care of those who need our services and the passion of those who work within it. I am proud to have played a part in that.”
Chairman of North East Ambulance Service, Peter Strachan said, “The past five years at North East Ambulance Service have been extremely challenging but Helen has led the organisation with enormous integrity.
“In the face of a global pandemic, internal and external scrutiny, cultural challenges and system and financial pressures, our service has hugely benefited from Helen’s advocacy and accountability. Not only has she steered our ship, but she has also triggered innovation and transformation to ensure the service NEAS offers continues to improve for patients and for colleagues alike.
“On behalf of the entire board, our colleagues and our communities, I’d like to thank her, both for her leadership and her NHS service as a whole - a career spanning 42 years of public service is a remarkable achievement and one for which she can be as deeply proud, as we are grateful.”
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