Today is World Health Day, which this year is campaigning for science-led solutions for a healthier future. With today’s research paving the way for the scientific treatments of tomorrow, SECAmb has been developing its own research capacity. The Research and Development Department held open applications across the Trust, before awarding £3,000 grants to three teams of colleagues with research prop
This weekend sees Easter celebrations. Considered the cornerstone of the Christian faith, the festival celebrates Jesus rising from the dead, three days after he was executed on the cross. SECAmb chaplain Peter Hills and Sadie Ghinn-Morris, co-Chair of the enABLE Staff Network, talk about what the religious celebration means to them. Methodist minister Peter, currently covering stations in the G
Trigger warning: This article contains references to traumatic events, including the death of a member of the SECAmb team. The parents of Alice Clark, who died in January 2022 while on duty as a newly qualified paramedic, have shared their powerful story and campaign for change to protect colleagues and patients in a special podcast. In a conversation with Simon Weldon, SECAmb’s Chief Execu
With more than a thousand urgent calls to our 111 service over the Easter Holidays made for repeat prescriptions, South East Coast Ambulance Service (SECAmb) is urging the public to plan ahead. Over the four-day weekend from 3 to 6 April, SECAmb can expect to handle more than 13,000 calls to its 999 service and 18,000 calls to NHS 111 – a service it provides across Sussex, Kent and Medway. Last ye
Next week will see celebrations to mark the start of Passover, or Pesach, a major event in the Jewish calendar. A spring festival lasting seven or eight days, it features a ceremonial meal called a Seder, where the biblical story of the Israelites’ liberation from slavery in Egypt is retold. Paramedic Amba Cooper, who has worked in SECAmb for 11 years having started as an ECSW, shares the ce
We are part-way through Ramadan, one of the holiest months of the year for Muslims, a time of self-reflection, self-evaluation, increasing worship and charitable deeds. The month involves a daily fast from dawn to sunset, abstaining from food and drink, including water. For SECAmb colleagues observing Ramadan, while it is a beautiful time of the year, it requires some adjustments at work. Paramedi
SECAmb was represented at a special community Iftar gathering in Surrey held by the Epsom and Ewell Islamic Society on Sunday. Advanced Paramedic Practitioners Kay Ayre and Jake Lean from Banstead joined the Head Imam, Joynal Ahmed, society chairman Abdul Mannan, the centre’s executive committee and congregation for the Iftar, the evening meal which breaks the daily fast observed during Ramadan. O
A Surrey woman who was unaware she was having a heart attack has thanked a SECAmb ambulance crew for their quick response and care, saying they saved her life. Last December, Janice Nuttall from Great Bookham phoned 111 for advice after suffering some chest pain and feeling short of breath. “It wasn’t a great pain, I have to say,” said Janice as, along with her husband Brian, she was reunited with
An innovative collaboration between South East Coast Ambulance Service (SECAmb) and Ashford and St Peter’s Hospitals is bringing emergency X-ray services to the homes of patients – a first of its kind for a UK ambulance trust. The four-month trial of the Emergency Community X-Ray Service has been so successful that – as well as supporting patients, reducing Emergency Department (ED) admissions and
SECAmb is providing key PPE training to acute hospitals across the South East, to cover High Consequence Infectious Disease (HCID) scenarios. Utilising its specialist trainers experienced in these situations, a SECAmb team has created a bespoke course to train NHS staff on how to safely use the PPE ensemble recommended for assessing HCID patients. NHS England has instructed there should be a unifi