Prime minister meets ambulance staff

The impact of last week’s flooding was brought into focus on Monday when the ambulance service’s head of resilience met the Prime Minister during a visit to Norfolk.

East of England Ambulance Service NHS Trust (EEAST)’s Robert Flute chairs the Norfolk Resilience Forum (NRF) and met PM David Cameron whilst he was visiting to see the impact of the flooding on communities.

Robert led the county’s preparations for the flooding which included an exercise a month ago playing out a very similar scenario as part of the ongoing programme of emergency preparedness work that the NRF does.

Robert Flute said: “It was a privilege to meet the Prime Minister. He was very interested in how the ambulance service worked closely with other emergency services and partners last week and the work Norfolk Resilience Forum has done around preparing for adverse events and educating the public about what they can do in such situations.

“The response of the ambulance service last week was first class. We were well prepared to deal with the flooding and work alongside our fire, police and council colleagues. This is thanks to the hard work and dedication of our staff and managers, and the plans and preparations we have in place to deal with a range of major incidents, such as last week’s flooding.”

Crews from EEAST worked with other emergency services and utilised its hazardous area response team and non-emergency patient transport services to help evacuate the most vulnerable in coastal areas of Norfolk, Suffolk and Essex.