Ambulance 'Turnaround Plan'

23 April 2013, 11:38 | Updated: 23 April 2013, 11:43

The East of England Ambulance Service have announced a 'turnaround plan' following criticism of their response times.

The Service say the plan will "transform patient care and boost staff morale". 

The Service plan to take on more than 350 new staff, 149 of them paramedics. There are also plans to cut staff sickness.

They say the plan will "build on measures announced earlier this year such as recruiting more front line staff and having more ambulances, and is focussed on building a successful 999 service within a thriving organisation."

The East of England Ambulance Service, which covers Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Norfoik, Suffolk and Essex, has come in for fierce criticism in recent weeks for its reponse times.

The Trust's chair, Maria Ball, resigned at the end of March 2013.

Andrew Morgan, interim Chief Executive, said: “We need to improve the service we give to patients and better support our dedicated and committed staff.

"In addition to recruiting more people and putting more vehicles on the road earlier this year, we have developed short and medium term actions and, coupled with our organisational development strategy to better empower staff, these will help to start to transform the service.”

He added: “Transforming the organisation will take time but we have the staff and the focus to turn things around together.”