Visit to South East Coast Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust

Our chief executive, Daniel Elkeles, recently visited the South East Coast Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust (SECAmb) Make Ready Centre in Gillingham, North Kent, which has been open for two years.

Daniel said: "In reality it's much more than a centre that services, prepares and stocks up the North Kent ambulance fleet. It's also a large ambulance station with 250 clinical staff. It's also one of the service's two 999 and 111 call centres; staff answer the phone, dispatch ambulances and clinically assess patients. It also has an education, training, and simulation centre.

"With all these functions housed under one roof, it's the only one of its kind in England. It's the blueprint for what a future regional ambulance base should look like. The site is in an area of high deprivation and unemployment, and bringing hundreds of entry level jobs with good training to the area is the NHS acting as true anchor employer.

"The ambulance performance for the North Kent area is meeting all of the government’s current targets for both category one and category two ambulance and 999 call answering. This is in part due to:

🔵 The efficiencies of the operating model that this new facility provides. 🔵 Its great location relative to the population it serves.
🔵 Due to the local hospitals prioritising speedy hand overs of patients. 

"Call handling is a hugely stressful role. SECAmb has introduced psychometric testing into call handler recruitment, which increased the success rate for candidates completing the training.

"Having spent a good few years working with paramedics, they aren’t shy in coming forward to give their opinions. There was a consensus from those I spoke to that the culture at SECAmb under its current leadership had improved markedly, and they agreed with the vision and strategic direction that the organisation was taking.  

"Part of this is the new collaboration that it has announced with its neighbour, South Central Ambulance Service, forming a group that covers the NHSE south east region. Ambulance services, like the rest of the provider sector, are looking for ways to reduce costs without reducing front-line care resource – working in collaboratives and formal group structures feels like the natural way that the service will evolve.

"Thank you to Michael, Simon, John and Laurence for a memorable visit."