East of England Ambulance Service welcomes first consultant paramedic

After a tough recruitment selection process, John Martin, EEAST clinical development and innovation lead, has been appointed the trusts first consultant paramedic and only the sixth in the entire UK. Consultant paramedics operate across four domains; expert clinical practice, strategy and leadership, research and development, and education and training.

Commenting on his appointment John said: "This is a fantastic opportunity to facilitate the development of world-class clinical practice in the East of England. I am looking forward to the challenge of working across the organisation to take clinical care forward, and develop the paramedic profession further."

Chief Executive Officer Hayden Newton said: "I am delighted that John has been appointed into this new and prestigious post which underlines our commitment to developing the clinical service to our patients. I wish John all the very best in this post."

Dr Pamela Chrispin, the trusts medical director said: "I am delighted that John has been appointed as our first consultant paramedic. He was selected after a highly competitive process which attracted top-quality national applicants. The panel were particularly impressed with John's vision, expert clinical focus and leadership qualities."

Pam added: "The consultant paramedic is an associate director post and is the apex of the clinical career pathway. John and his team of clinical general managers, Marcus Bailey, Matt Broad, Paul Kattenhorn, Tracy Nicholls and the new clinical general manager for the HEOCs will be driving quality clinical care across the service, at a time when we are starting to be measured against our clinical performance and not just response times. Delivering the required clinical standards consistently is going to be a real challenge but this appointment is a very exciting development which I believe sends a clear message about the Board's commitment to recognising and developing paramedic practice."