Spotlight on our service: celebrating our volunteers
As part of Volunteers’ Week (2-8 June), we’re recognising our community first responders, ambulance care service drivers, porters, community ambassadors, and governors.
Over the last 12 months, more than 400 NEAS volunteers have dedicated 216,500 of hours of their time to support our service. They support us in the following ways:
- Our 112 community first responders are based across the region and are trained to deal with emergencies prior to the arrival of an ambulance. Over the last year they have attended 1,850 incidents and have collectively volunteered over 41,000 hours for the service in 2024/25, equating to 1,715 days and respond to serious emergencies such as cardiac arrests.
- Our 119 ambulance car service drivers in the past year alone have transported over 77,870 patients and have travelled over 28 million miles using their own vehicles to drive patients to and from appointments at hospital, which helps keep ambulances free for emergencies and patients who are too poorly to travel by car.
- Our 23 hospital porters work across the regions hospitals and are the first point of contact for non-life-threatening patients once they arrive at hospital, allowing ambulance crews to get back on the road and respond to more emergencies.
- Our 145 community ambassadors work alongside our engagement team and within their local communities to raise awareness of our services and life-saving skills like CPR. This work includes hosting CPR and defibrillator sessions to increase the general public’s knowledge of bystander CPR.
- Our 19 public governors, three staff governors, plus two appointed governors. Our governors play a vital role in reviewing the performance of our Board and the contribution our service makes to the wider health and care system, providing an essential link to the communities we serve.
Jez Browne, one of our governors and ambulance car service drivers kindly spoke to us about his role earlier this year after receiving a record number of appreciations from patients he has supported.
NEAS chief operating officer, Stephen Segasby said: “Our volunteers continue to work hard, every day, and we are very proud of them. They have provided unmatched support for the service and displayed a great, dedicated, care for patients across the region; it is an honour to be able to recognise and thank them for this.
“The commitment our volunteers give to NEAS, as well as the patients & communities we serve, is exceptional, selfless and taken out of their own time. The service and I cannot thank them enough for the work that they do and our volunteer team too.”