Hayden Newton to lead service

The appointment comes 10 months after Mr Newton stepped into the breach when former Chief Executive Dr Chris Carney suffered a serious spinal injury.
Dr Carney had to retire in January, and Mr Newton, formerly Chief Executive of Kent Ambulance Service, is looking forward to leading the EEAS through a period of great change in the coming years.
Mr Newton, 54, who led the Department of Health’s project on introducing the new response time standards for ambulance services, said he was very excited about the huge task of bringing together a six-county ambulance service.
“I’m delighted to be taking up this challenge and would like to thank my predecessor for creating a service of such excellent clinical quality,” he added.
“I’m determined to build on this success and also work towards further integrating the three former ambulance services which merged in July 2006 to form the EEAS.
“In the coming few months we have a lot of work to do to ensure that we achieve the government’s challenging new response performance target which sees a change in how we measure performance, designed to further improve the service we deliver to patients.
“This means more staff in control rooms and on the road, more vehicles and improvements to our control room layouts and systems.”
Mr Newton has previously worked in Cambridgeshire, Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire during an ambulance career which began in Peterborough.
He has promised to seek the views of as many staff as possible in the coming months as the new service begins to gain its own identity.
“There are a great many challenges and opportunities ahead and I want to really encourage staff from all groups and all areas to get involved; it’s crucial in an organisation of this size to make sure people still have a voice,” he explained.
Trust Chair, Maria Ball, said: “I am very pleased that we have been able to appoint a new Chief Executive of the calibre of Hayden Newton.
“Hayden will bring to our Trust a rare combination of both ambulance service and national health service policy experience. This will be crucial during what is a very exciting time within ambulance services and a key time to ensure that our Trust delivers its full potential in playing a greater role within the wider NHS.
“On behalf of the Board of the East of England Ambulance Service NHS Trust and, I am sure, all of our staff, we are really looking forward to continuing to work with Hayden and to maintaining our position as one of the leading new ambulance Trusts within the NHS.”

Notes:

Hayden Newton was appointed Interim Chief Executive in May 2007 to oversee the Trust while then Chief Executive Dr Chris Carney was absent for medical reasons.
Following Dr Carney’s retirement Hayden was appointed, via a competitive process, to the post on a permanent basis in February 2008.
A former operational manager at Peterborough ambulance station, Hayden took up a directorship at the Scottish Ambulance Service in 1988 before returning to England as Director of Performance for the Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire Ambulance Service in 2000.
He was then appointed Chief Executive of Kent Ambulance Service in 2003, leading the Trust in attaining three star status from the Healthcare Commission, before moving to a national post at the Department of Health leading on the Call Connect initiative.
He also served as Interim Chief Executive of the Ambulance Service Association and led the negotiations around the merger with the NHS Confederation, which has now successfully gone ahead.