The Ambulance Leadership Forum (ALF) annual conference took place on 18–19 November at the Queens Hotel in Leeds and was attended by over 200 delegates from the UK and overseas. The Shadow Secretary of State for Health, Andy Burnham MP, formally opened the event welcoming attendees to the ALF dinner and 2014 Association of Ambulance Chief Executives (AACE) Outstanding Service Awards with an impassioned speech in which he affirmed his personal commitment to, ‘ensuring that health care should be delivered by an NHS with its roots still firmly grounded on the original principles of the organisation, as set out in 1948.’ Burnham outlined his vision for an integrated health and social care system and stated his belief that the NHS 111 service should be closely aligned with the NHS 999 service.
A central conference theme was the ambulance service's pivotal role in the delivery of urgent care, which has been reflected in its input into the Keogh Urgent and Emergency Care Review. This view was endorsed by Professor Keith Willett, director for acute episodes of care, NHS England, who updated the audience about the review's progress and appealed to the ambulance service to continue to shape and deliver its expanded role in urgent care.
Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Quality, Earl Howe, focused on the unique positioning of the ambulance service in contributing to improvements in urgent and emergency care. Lord Howe remarked that, ‘the ambulance service is the service at the very heart of the NHS’ and affirmed the, ‘pivotal role that paramedics have to play in reducing hospital admissions’. Providing an international perspective, Jerry Overton, past president of the American Ambulance Service, spoke about the American experience of addressing ambulance service system change in relation to the Keogh Review.
Demand was a further conference theme, its source and its management. Dr Fionna Moore, medical director, London Ambulance Service, presented the findings of a recent study commissioned by the AACE into ambulance service demand. The study provides a more comprehensive empirical understanding of demand drivers than has previously been seen, which is intended to contribute to and further enhance ambulance services' ability to deal with that ever growing demand in the future. Patrick Mitchell, Health Education England, spoke about educating the future workforce and standardising that education within the paramedic profession to ensure the appropriateness and consistency of the ambulance service response on a national level.
Leadership underpinned a number of the agenda items. Dr Attila J Hertelendy, assistant professor and director, Emergency Health Services Program at the George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences talked about leadership within the emergency medical service sphere, while Rob Webster, chief executive officer, NHS Confederation outlined the importance of value-based leadership.
Martin Flaherty, managing director, AACE concluded the 12th ALF by highlighting how the event had provided ambulance leaders and managers with, ‘a vital opportunity to discuss new initiatives with colleagues who can bring fresh thinking and new ideas to the table, helping us to ensure our ambulance service is best placed to provide a broader range of urgent and emergency care services in the future.’
For more information about the 2014 Ambulance Leadership Forum and the Association of Ambulance Chief Executives, please visit our website: http://aace.org.uk/.