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NEAS |
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Mission Statement ‘The aim of the North East Ambulance Service is to provide responsive, high quality, caring services for the people of the North East.’
Our Values The Trust’s people strive to meet its mission in accordance with the following values: 1 Make the care and safety of patients our first concern 2 Ensure quality in all we deliver 3 Be involving and inclusive with the public, patients, relatives, carers, NHS carers, NHS staff and partners in other agencies
4 Treat colleagues, patients, NHS partners and other agencies with respect and professionalism 5 Be honest and act with integrity 6 Be firm and fair in the treatment of colleagues 7 Work together as a team, through co-operation with colleagues in the Trust, in the wider NHS and outside community. 8 Constantly strive for improvement in everything we do 9 Accept responsibility and accountability for our own work, our performance and that of the Trust.
Area covered
We provide accident and emergency (A&E and non emergency patient transport (PTS) for the two million people living in Northumberland, Tyne and Wear and County Durham, covering an area of approximately 3,000 square miles. See the map for details
In 2005/2006 NEAS A&E crews dealt with 189,895 emergency calls from the public. PTS crews carried out 945,756 out-patient journeys.
Operational Structure
North East Ambulance Service headquarters is situated on Newcastle Business Park, Newcastle upon Tyne, where the A&E and PTS control complexes and other administrative offices are housed. Throughout the region there are 55 Trust locations including 47 ambulance stations. Whilst the majority of stations operate on a 24 hour basis, there are seven stand by stations, mainly in rural areas. A number of the stations also house the non-emergency Patient Transport Service employees and vehicles.
Some sites are shared with the Fire Service in an effort to increase ambulance cover and reduce overheads. Due to the urban and rural areas of the Trust, we operate various types of vehicles to cope with the differing road conditions. In total, the Trust runs over 400 vehicles, 18 rapid response cars, one solo motorcycle which undertake 3.96 million miles per year. The Trust also make use of helicopters funded by the Great North Air Ambulance, when available. We have 184 non emergency vehicles within the Patient Transport Service. These vehicles travel over four million miles per year. The Trust has 100 ambulance car service drivers who work on a voluntary basis and undertake around 194,000 journeys per year.
To provide our emergency and non emergency services for the North East, the Trust employs over 1400 members of staff.
From July 2006
The new North East Ambulance Service NHS Trust was formed on the 1st July 2006 following the merger of the previous North East Ambulance Service and part of the Teesside, East and North Yorkshire Ambulance Trust.
The new Service now covers the counties of Northumberland, Tyne and Wear, Durham and Teesside, an area of approximately 3,230 square miles. The Trust employs 1750 people and serves a population of 2.6 million.
Emergency Planning
The Emergency Planning Department (EPD) have taken on board developments from the Department of Health in relation the service’s resilience to respond to major and chemical, biological, radiological & nuclear and hazardous material (CBRN/HAZMAT) incidents. North East Ambulance Service has introduced CBRN 7.5 tonne IVECO lorries to ensure that all the necessary equipment can be transported and deployed quickly in the event of an incident. The upgrading of the previous major incident trailers to Renault Masters has again ensured a rapid deployment of support equipment to the scene of an incident. The purchasing of heating and lighting will further enhance our capability on scene and provide necessary ancillary support. The Emergency Planning Department was heavily involved in some of the region’s biggest events. The Tall Ships race brought several hundred thousand people to Newcastle and Gateshead quaysides. The extensive medical planning in preparation for the six days, saw the usual excellent working relationship with the British Red Cross and St John Ambulance Service and brought the necessary medical cover to the event.
The Labour Party Conference and Conference of European Ministers required the involvement of a number of the service’s Special Operations Response Team (SORT) to provide medical and decontamination cover throughout the events. In addition, the North East Ambulance Service were asked to provide a SORT team at the G8 conference that was held at the Gleneagles Golf Club in Scotland.
Both the Emergency Planning Officer and Deputy Planning Officer have been involved in national working groups that will bring forward significant changes to the ability of ambulance services to undertake effective decontamination. It is expected that these working groups will come to fruition during 2006/07.
The Emergency Planning Department continued its extensive training programme and completed 10, one day Major Incident Medical Management & Support courses (MIMMS) for operational staff. A further 13 will be planned for 2006/07. Advanced MIMMS courses have also been completed and North East Ambulance Service is rapidly approaching having all on call officers trained to this level. SORT refreshers have been included in the programme and slow but steady progress was seen in improving the knowledge base of trained staff.
Link to: Link to the North East Ambulance Service Website
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