New figures show that there has been a 50% rise in the number of compliments that West Midlands Ambulance Service has received from members of the public in the last two years.
In total during 2022-23, there were 2,666 letters, emails, web forms and social media posts complimenting staff for their actions. This was also a 29% rise on the previous year, which saw the Trust receive 2,070 messages of thanks. There were 1,783 in 2020-21.
Trust Chief Executive, Anthony Marsh, said: “This is quite remarkable when you consider that the last two years, and particularly the last 12 months, have been the toughest faced by our Trust, ever.
“Long hospital handover delays have meant we have never had such long response times and patients taken to hospital have often had extensive delays before being admitted.
“Despite all of this, more and more members of the public are taking the time to say ‘thank you’ to the staff within West Midlands Ambulance Service. What is so pleasing is that the compliments cover all areas of the Trust geographically, but also the many different job roles – ambulance staff, those in our control rooms, non-emergency patient transport service staff, community first responders and also staff who work behind the scenes.
“We make sure that we identify the staff each time we receive a compliment and pass it on to the individuals so that they can see how much of a difference the work they do is making to people’s lives.
“Working in the ambulance service, we generally only see the start of the care and often we only meet a patient for about an hour so finding out what happened to the person provides closure for our staff.”
Senior Operations Manager, Nic Gunn, added: “I’m really pleased to see the increase in the number of compliments; they have come in from every area of the region.
“The staff are currently working in difficult circumstances due to the current pressures in the NHS, so it’s really pleasing to see that patients are taking time out after having potentially the worst day of their life to come and thank us for what we’ve done – it is deeply humbling that so many people are prepared to do so.
“The staff certainly don’t do the job for compliments, but we all know how much it means when someone says ‘thank you’ to us, so we really do appreciate people taking the time. I’ve seen it first-hand what it means to the staff when I’m able to share the compliments with staff and how emotional they can get when they receive one highlighting the quality of the work they have been able to provide people in their hour of need.”
