Ambulance staff in spotlight

AMBULANCE staff are being asked for their ideas on how to improve the ambulance service, having been chosen to take part in the Spotlight competition. The East of England Ambulance Service NHS Trust (EEAST) staff were chosen by Health Enterprise East (HEE) to put forward their innovative ideas for improvement.

The best two entrants will receive cash rewards to develop their ideas - £1,500 for first place and £500 for second place, and will be supported by HEE.

Chief executive of EEAST Hayden Newton said: “I’m really pleased to say that the competition has been launched. The scope for ideas is endless, and could be anything from a new medical technology to a patient information leaflet or DVD.

“Our staff are full of good ideas and this is a fantastic opportunity to help get some of those ideas off the ground. We really are encouraging them to get involved.”

Ideas could include a new training programme or toolkit, a new way of delivering a service, a new medical technology, a new software application or a new patient information leaflet or DVD.

They will be judged on inventiveness, benefits, practicality, impact and adoptability and transferability.

This is the third year HEE has run the competition. Previous winners have included the James Paget University Hospital for developing an information card to help staff meet individual dementia patients’ needs and two ophthalmologists at Addenbrooke’s Hospital who devised a unique piece of equipment to transform corneal transplant surgery and lead to faster recovery of vision.

The competition is open until January 6 and winners will be announced in the new year.

For more information visit the competition webpage at http://www.hee.org.uk/Content/Spotlight-ambo.html