Staff praise from ambulance patients

Emergency services were called to the A6 today

'˜First class', '˜brilliant' and '˜faultless' are the words used to describe ambulance staff by patients in a new report.

More than 100 people who used the East of England Ambulance Service NHS Trust (EEAST) in May completed the Trust’s latest survey and rated the care they received.

Ninety nine per cent of patients said they were very satisfied, satisfied or fairly satisfied with the care they received.

Figures from the patient experience survey report, revealed 98% of respondents rated the handling of their call as very acceptable, acceptable or fairly acceptable and 98% felt that staff had treated them with dignity and respect.

Some of the comments from the report referred to staff as ‘exemplary, true professionals’, ‘friendly’, ‘kind and helpful’, and ‘could not fault’ the service.

Robert Morton, Chief Executive of EEAST, said: “Over the last four months, we have seen a 13% improvement in RED 1 performance since March and an 11% improvement in RED 2 performance. While an improvement in response times is welcomed, patient experience is critically important to us and is more reflective of the care and compassion that our staff deliver every day.

“My thanks go to everyone who has taken the time to fill in the questionnaires. This feedback from our patients is clear evidence that the care we deliver to patients is excellent and that our services continue to improve.”

Areas for improvement revealed 2.8% of patients describing the length of time they waited for the ambulance service to arrive as unacceptable or very unacceptable and 2% of patients who found the handling of their call unacceptable.