Visit to East Midlands Ambulance Service NHS Trust
26 June 2025
NHS Providers chief executive Daniel Elkeles visits East Midlands Ambulance Service NHS Trust.
Ambulance
This morning our chief executive Daniel Elkeles and chair Professor Sir Terence Stephenson visited the headquarters of East Midlands Ambulance Service NHS Trust (EMAS).
Daniel said: “Whenever people visit an ambulance service control centre for the first time, they might expect an intense, high-pressure environment. Yet the teams often display a calm, controlled and professional manner, and the staff on our visit to the Emergency Operations Centre in Nottingham were no exception.
“It was great to spend time listening to call handlers triaging 999 calls, ambulance dispatch teams supporting colleagues on the roads and clinicians undertaking ‘hear and treat’ assessments on the phone for patients who didn’t require an ambulance from their initial presenting condition. There was a clear, collective desire to achieve and deliver for patients in the region.

“With recent experience of running an ambulance service myself, what stood out for me was the absolute focus on creating a compassionate leadership culture with team working at its centre. It is phenomenally hard to do this in the challenging 24/7 emergency operations call centre environment, but the focus on doing the very best for each individual member of staff stood out and presents itself clearly in their staffing data.
🔵 70%+ completion of the staff survey by the call handling team.
🔵 17% turnover rate (equal lowest in ambulance sector).
🔵 Creation of a call handler to paramedic recruitment programme.
“Thank you Jeff, Richard and team for a most enjoyable visit.”
