Ambulance Service Celebrates Long Service Awards

Ambulance Service staff from across the six counties of Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Essex, Hertfordshire, Norfolk & Suffolk covered by the East of
England Ambulance Service, gathered at Newmarket's Rowley Mile racecourse last month to pay tribute to colleagues who have served patients with distinction for at least 20 years.

Awards were made in three categories. The Queens Medal, for 20 years of frontline service; a 25-year long service award or a 20-year long service awards for non frontline staff.

Guests were welcomed to the ceremony by chief executive Hayden Newton who also presented awards to staff who have worked for 20 years in the ambulance service. He said. "We have been through some difficult times this year but the magnificent efforts of our staff
have turned the trust around. People think that the ambulance service is just about paramedics and ambulances with blue lights, but we are much more than that and this award is for who work behind the scenes in operational control rooms, in non-emergency services and people from finance, fleet workships, IT and human resources."

Lord Tollemarche, Lord Lieutenant of Suffolk, and Keith Pearson, chairman of the East of England Strategic Health Authority, also attended the ceremony. Presenting the Queen's medal for 20 years emergency duties Lord Tollemarche paid tribute to the wonderful service of staff saying: "I'm very much aware of the pressures that you all have to go through and I am impressed by how ambulance crews work so closely and effectively with the other emergency services to help people when they are in greatest need. I recognize that you have a difficult and sometimes harrowing job."

Presenting the 20 years service award Keith Pearson said: "A colleague said to me recently that paramedics in the ambulance trust are the best communicators in the NHS, and he is right. Your ability to enter into someone's house, make instant decisions, communicate clearly and kindly to reassure and care for the patient is second to none .

The evening was brought to a close by Trust chair Maria Ball, who thanked everybody for coming together to celebrate the achievements of the award winners