East England’s ambulance service severely criticised
Posted: June 28, 2012
Posted in: Medical Negligence 
A recent parliamentary debate has slated the East of England Ambulance Service (EEAS), referring to it as ‘incompetent’ and ‘worrying’. Where EEAS fire crews are continually praised by MPs for their dedicated efforts, trust managers seem to be causing great concern amongst MPs in the eastern region. These concerns had been passed to the Health Minister, Anna Soubry, which triggered the report to examine the reasoning behind the trust’s poor performance.
Worrying results have been unveiled through this report, showing very weak and unreliable management. An independent report, which was carried out earlier in the month, described the board’s leadership as being “just not strong enough”. Dr Anthony Marsh, chief executive of the West Midlands Ambulance service, was commissioned to write the report due to sky-high concerns regarding the trust. He found that the reasoning behind its incompetence was down to a lack of accountability throughout the service. From this, he made 24 recommendations to the organisation, one of which was to cut back management and fund more emergency crews.
Non-executive directors have to go
Conservative MP for Whitman, Priti Patel, said that the way in which the EEAS is operating, is putting lives at risk. In the Westminster Hall debate, she said: “The board has failed to demonstrate the high level of expertise, the skills and the devotion that is required in the boardroom.”
Therese Coffey, Conservative MP for Suffolk Coastal, said: “Until these non-executive directors go we will not have confidence in the leadership of the trust to make a difference.”
Although the trust recently published a turnaround plan, involving better response times and reduced sickness absence, a lot is still to be done in the way that the EEAS is managed.
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