North East ambulance service volunteers celebrated for NHS 70th anniversary
*******PRESS RELEASE – EMBARGOED UNTIL 6/6/2018 at 5.30PM******
The NHS’s 70th birthday celebrations are casting a light over the vital contribution that North East ambulance service volunteers make across the service.
During Volunteer’s Week (1-7 June), North East Ambulance Service will thank those already supporting the Trust by volunteering and hopes to inspire future generations to play their part in shaping the next 70 years of innovation and care.
More than 80 of the Trust’s volunteers were thanked for their support at a celebratory event held today at Choppington Social Welfare Centre.
The Trust, which covers 3,200 square miles across the North East region, serves a population of 2.7 million people by handling all NHS 111 and 999 calls for the region, operating patient transport and ambulance response services, with support from 330 volunteers.
Whether as a volunteer porter, ambulance car service driver, community first responder or governor, NEAS volunteers invest thousands of hours in the service every year with some choosing to volunteer to help them in their career path and others want to give something back at the end of their career.
In total, 67 volunteers will be recognised for long service of between two and 20 years and 14 will be highlighted for going the extra mile for their patients.
There will be one volunteer receiving a certificate to recognise over 20 year dedication to supporting the Trust along with 4 volunteers recognised for 15 year service, 6 volunteers for 10 year service and 39 volunteers for five year service.
Yvonne Ormston, NEAS Chief Executive, said: “Volunteers make a significant contribution to their community in lots of ways in our organisation. Over the last 12 months, we have invested even more in our volunteers to ensure they have up to date skills and equipment to be an effective volunteer.
“Volunteering with NEAS gives people an opportunity to meet new people and invest in their community, often giving them experiences that will support their entering other NHS careers.
“Our staff and volunteers touch the lives of thousands of patients, and make a difference day in, day out. This event is about getting our volunteers together to show how much we appreciate their service and to say an enormous thank you for all that they do.”
More than 50 people volunteer as porters with the service, meeting patient transport crews at hospitals to and from vehicles to their hospital appointments. Last year they helped nearly 5000 patients at five of the region’s hospitals, saving crews over 530 hours so that they could be back on the road to their next patient, and completing over 6000 shifts equating to more than 36,000 hours. They also assisted 2265 members of the public to make sure they got to the right department for their appointments. This year NEAS has recruited 12 new porters and is currently looking at recruiting a further two in the near future. We have supported the volunteers and offered programmes to help improve their IT skills as well as BLS CPR and First Aid Training and provided the opportunity for them to observe both A&E and Patient Transport Service crews.
Over 150 people volunteer as ambulance car service drivers (ACS) for NEAS. At least 11 of them have volunteered for over 10 years and one has volunteered for over 20. Together they have completed a combined 939 years of volunteer service. ACS drivers use their own vehicles to help transport patients to and from hospitals and clinics, which keeps ambulances free for emergencies and for patients too ill to travel by car. Last year the drivers completed patient journeys all over the region and reached over 3,900,000 miles.
All ambulance care service drivers are issued with a smart phone and ACS car signs as well as a full uniform. NEAS has provided ACS drivers with the opportunity to develop their skills by offering BLS CPR and First Aid Training and IT skills courses.
The service also values the support of approximately 100 community first responders (CFRs) who have been recruited and trained to respond to emergency calls when dispatched by ambulance control. They deal with a specific list of emergencies and provide the patient with support and appropriate treatment until an ambulance arrives.
Their aim is to provide immediate care to a patient where every second counts; a patient who suffers a cardiac arrest stands a much better chance of survival if a fully trained person with a defibrillator can attend the patient in the first minutes of collapse. Last year community first responders volunteered for nearly 23,000 hours, attending to 1,000 patients across the region.
NEAS has boosted the recruitment of CFRs over the last 12 months, welcoming a number of new people to the team, with training to develop their skills through the introduction of a nationally recognised level three qualification. 37 CFRs are now trained to deliver awareness sessions around CPR and defibrillation in their communities as well as the British Heart Foundation’s HeartStart with access to training mannequins to support them when attending a public event or providing training. In the last year, 6725 people have been shown how to carry out CPR and use a defibrillator, 3410 of which were taught by our volunteers.
Upgraded uniforms and new equipment such as new pagers, belt clips and docking stations are giving our CFRs better access to ambulance control as well as greater protection against the elements when responding, making them clearly identifiable in public places.
ENDS
*Pictures to follow
Notes to editors
**************MEDIA OPPORTUNITY**************
*Not for publication
WHAT:More than 80 volunteers will be thanked for their support at an event held by North East Ambulance Service (NEAS). The event will celebrate the long service of between five and 20 years of a 67 volunteers, as well as the exceptional conduct of a further 14 for going the extra mile for their patients. Volunteer porters, ambulance car service drivers and community first responders invest thousands of hours in their communities every year by supporting the Trust’s patients. Please see full press release below, which is under embargo until the event.
WHO: NEAS Chief Executive, Yvonne Ormston
NEAS volunteers
WHEN: Wednesday 6 June, 5:30pm
WHERE: Choppington Welfare Centre, Fernlea Drive, Choppington, Stakeford, NE62 5SR
Members of the press wishing to attend are asked to please register beforehand with the NEAS press office on 0191 430 2099 or publicrelations@neas.nhs.uk
Notes to editors
For more information, contact the NEAS press office on 0191 430 2099 or email publicrelations@neas.nhs.uk
Case studies of volunteers
Bill Baty, Janice Robinson & Gordon Finlay
These three tireless volunteers have a combined length of service of over 34 years. In addition to their regular volunteer driving shifts, their contribution to our Volunteer Focus Committee meetings has been exceptional and is extremely valued. They consistently provide constructive input and feedback from their fellow volunteers in the various areas of the North East that they cover.
Robert Brebner – Ambulance Car Service
This Outstanding Appreciation is awarded to Bob to recognise that in the last 3 years of volunteering with NEAS he has received no less than 8 comments by way of letters or telephone calls from patients who had specifically contacted us to pass on their appreciation of his kind and courteous manner whilst transporting them.
Alan Cornish – Porter
Alan has volunteered as a hospital porter for almost 3 years and has been nominated by ACS drivers. Paul is always on hand to offer his guidance to visitors who require directions within the hospital and to offer his assistance in taking patients to and from their required departments.
He constantly conducts himself in a professional manner and is a very polite and approachable person. He can be relied upon to provide help when asked and he always carries out his duties with a smile. He has the utmost respect for all patients and staff whilst volunteering and patients often comment on his outstanding dedication.
Alvin Purvis – Community First Responder
Alvin is an employee of NEAS for the past 4 years who also finds time to volunteer for us as a CFR, in addition to this Alvin also helps the CFR team with CPR and D-Fib training. This has resulted in a recent group commenting on how very professional, fun and interesting the course was, they also said that Alvin was a great credit to NEAS and the NHS. As well as this Alvin recently worked for the Volunteer development team, it was a pleasure having him assist us over serval months, gaining a greater understanding of what we are delivering with the team.
Bob Patterson – Ambulance Car Service
Bob has been an Ambulance Car Service (ACS) volunteer driver since November 2017 and during this relatively short time he has made an impression with the patients he has transported for their treatment. Quoting from one of the many patients who have sent in an appreciation, one patient fed back “I couldn’t praise him highly enough, he was very, very, very good”. Another lady wrote in to say that “… he was wonderful and couldn’t be more helpful” after Bob ensured that she was in her home safely after her hospital visit. Bob is ex armed services and has expressed how pleased he is that he is now able to continue giving something back with the volunteering that he does.
Nigel Eliot - Ambulance Car Service
Nigel has almost 5 years’ service with NEAS and he goes about his volunteering with a quiet unassuming diligence. A typical example of what Nigel is like is in regards to a dialysis patient whose journey home after treatment was always around 11pm each Monday, Wednesday and Friday. For many months after a day’s volunteering, Nigel used to come back out to take him home each night. This was approximately a 100 mile round trip and the area is very remote. The patient sadly passed away in July last year and the patients wife rang Nigel to inform him but also to thank him for everything he had done for the patient over his last few months. It had meant a lot to the patient and his family to have a regular driver they could rely on during his treatment.
Graeme Smith – Community First Responder
Graeme has volunteered as a CFR for less than a year. He is dedicated to assisting as and when he can to his community. Graeme was nominated by a member of the public as a result of his actions whilst he was out with his own family. The incident was as a result of a gentleman choking on his food. Graeme kept calm whilst he and another man managed to control the situation where pandemonium had set in, the situation had detreated to a point that the gentleman stopped breathing and CPR was required. This was continued till the ambulance came on the scene, I can tell you that the patient was ok and taken to hospital. This patient may have otherwise died if it wasn’t for the quick thinking actions from Graeme.
Phillip Birt – Ambulance Car Service
Phil was nominated for this award by our Control for to his dedication and commitment. Although he has only volunteered with NEAS for a short time, he has shown his caring ability to assist us in times of escalation. This winter during ‘The Beast from the East’ he went considerably beyond the call of duty by continually turning out in outlying remote areas in his 4x4 to ensure our critical patients were able to attend their dialysis.
Terry Eccles - Ambulance Car Service
Terry has been volunteering with us for almost 8 years. Control have often said that Terry is fantastic all round but he also went above and beyond during ‘The Beast from the East’. He carried on volunteer driving all day regardless of very poor road conditions and returned a patient from Hexham to Alnwick before then continuing on to return numerous Alnwick dialysis patients home. Terry didn’t drop off his last patient until 8pm but then found himself stranded in Alnwick due to the worsening road conditions. Fortunately, he managed to call a friend in Alnwick and stayed overnight with them. The next morning before attempting to return home he still rang us in Control to ask if we needed any help moving anyone from Alnwick into Wansbeck/Newcastle
Dunmail Hodkinson
Dunmail has been a volunteer Community First Responder (CFR) since 2010 and for years has been logging on for 50-60 hours each week. He has been a Heartstart instructor for 5 years and he looks after training for 2 of his local schools. He has delivered over 60 separate training sessions to over 500 people in cPAD Awareness and Heartstart sessions which has included a televised session for Hexham Abbey which has had over 150 views. Dunmail has assisted guardians for 10 sites for NEAS and the Stephen Carey Fund, being a point of contact to deal with any issues with the cPAD sites.
Bryn Howard – Porter
Bryn’s dedication to NEAS is outstanding and this young man has developed considerably as an independent individual over the past 3 years with us. The ACS volunteer drivers all comment that he is always cheerful and willing to do anything asked of him. One driver noted that “Every patient he collects for me has nothing but praise for him”. Bryn has also just recently returned from travelling to London to be presented with a gold Duke of Edinburgh’s Award.
Stephen Howard – Ambulance Car Service
Stephen has been volunteer driving for 7 years and for the time and effort he puts in he has been described as “one in million”, “a true friend” and “a pleasure to work with” someone that often goes that extra mile. Steven is known to always make time to speak to the Volunteers Porters at the RVI and other hospitals.
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.