This is our 5th edition of Keeping P’AACE, a quarterly publication that aims to keep NHS ambulance service employees and volunteers across the UK informed and updated about the work of its membership body, the Association of Ambulance Chief Executives.
I wanted to take this opportunity to do three things: thank you for all your hard work and commitment throughout 2022; tell you about a few of the things we’ve done at a national level over the last 12 months; and, finally, assure you that I, alongside my fellow chief executive colleagues, am acutely aware of the difficulties facing the ambulance service as we move into 2023 and that we commit to continuing to do all we can at AACE to support trusts in doing the best they can for their patients and service users and employees and volunteers.
“2022 was an extremely difficult one for the UK NHS ambulance sector. The effects of COVID-19 remained far-reaching as well as increases in demand, wider system pressures and hospital handover delays. From conversations and feedback in my own trust, North West Ambulance Service, as well as with representatives at all levels across the sector, I know how much upset and frustration this has, and continues, to cause. Which makes the levels of commitment, enthusiasm and dedication to patient care, and everything our employees and volunteers are doing 24/7 to enable us to deliver patient care, all the more extraordinary.
In my capacity as AACE chair, I would like to offer my heartfelt thanks to each and every one of you.
“AACE seeks to support its member trusts in becoming providers, employers and partners of choice. With the input of colleagues from across the sector, alongside external partners, we have achieved a great deal in 2022.
“We have continued to highlight the adverse effect of hospital handover delays on our patients and staff following the publication of our handover delay report in November 2021.
“We have shone a monthly spotlight on the great anti-racism work underway across the sector – you can recap them all here. We have implemented an intelligent routing platform to facilitate trusts provision of mutual aid to each other.
“We have continued to liaise closely with NHS England 111 and non-emergency patient transport service teams to influence and inform service development and transformation in these areas. We have commissioned a 24/7 crisis line for all NHS ambulance service employees and volunteers.
You can learn more about that here, and visit their website here.
“We have also delivered a national ambulance volunteering conference and produced a corresponding national volunteering strategy as well as a national work without fear campaign, that underlines your right to ‘Work Without Fear’ of violence and aggression.
“Underpinning all the above, as well as many other projects and pieces of work, we have continuously listened to, engaged with, and worked alongside our members – right across trusts – as well as a vast multitude of stakeholders across health and social care, trade unions, government, the charity sector, international sister organisations and so on.
“Over the last few months specifically, I have been called to give oral evidence to both the House of Lords’ Enquiry into access to emergency care and the Health and Social Care Select Committee. I also represented the views of the ambulance sector at a No 10 summit in early January. I regularly meet with NHS England national executives and their equivalents at the Department of Health and Social Care, as well as the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care and the Minister for Health.
We are directly involved in NHS England’s production of an urgent and emergency care strategy, which now comprises an initial recovery plan; as part of this, I was asked to chair an ambulance workstream, representing ambulance services and seeking to secure the best possible future for our patients and service users.
In conclusion, I would like to thank everyone across the sector for your contributions to the UK NHS ambulance service throughout 2022 and congratulate you on all you have achieved, at personal, team, organisational and sector levels, and to thank you all for that ongoing commitment and dedication as we move into a new year.
