Ambulance Services: Leadership and Management Perspectives
In October 2012, yours truly wrote the editorial for this fine publication, in which I called for a new way of thinking about leadership in the ambulance service. Fast forward to 2015 and yet another publication is set to hit the market, with a proverbial galacticos of contributors having been assembled from the ambulance service world.
A criticism which I have levelled at previous leadership/management frameworks (the difference between them, incidentally, needs to be clearer defined in the book) is that they fail to reflect the context in which they are being considered. Not so here, as the sting is immediately drawn by highlighting the unforgiving (and unsustainable) demand levels currently being experienced and the backdrop of austerity in which ambulance services are having to operate. This makes for staggering reading.
Some light is shed on how the service needs to modernise to adapt to this, but while presenting well-polished rhetoric, it does lack specificity: the role of leadership is unclear and I struggled to grasp the concept of ‘high levels’ of education based on the current level of Diploma on which the model is framed.
This baton is taken up through an excellent contribution on the role of leadership and the clinical imperative that is somehow summarised in a single diagram. Can it really be that simple? It is theoretically sound, but given that the lack of consistency in adopting the professional body's national career framework, I would argue there is still a long way to go.
I must be mindful of not confusing a review of the text with a reflection on the wider position of the ambulance service at present—this has been well written by a credible array of contributors and is certainly worth a read. If for no other reason, the contributors have pulled together most of the contemporary issues affecting the ambulance service and collated them in one volume, combined with some excellent commentary.
However, I am still looking for something new in the literature. Repeated reference is made to the 2005 Bradley report (Department of Health, 2005) that identified the need for major ambulance service reform. As for the actual level of progress made since then, the reader will have their own reflections. The same goes for the accompanying literature.
Perhaps there will be a revised 2nd edition?