East of England Ambulance Service hub at Suffolk Park on the edge of Bury St Edmunds unveiled
The opening of a new £10 million ambulance hub has been marked with the planting of a tree.
Robert Rous, Vice Lord-Lieutenant of Suffolk, has launched the East of England Ambulance Service’s 2,900m2 facility at Suffolk Park, on the edge of Bury St Edmunds, this afternoon.
The site has space for 33 ambulances with a vehicle repair workshop and vehicle preparation area to support the frontline operational team.
Alan Adams, senior paramedic who worked at the Brooklands Close site in Bury for about three decades, said this had been a long time in the making.
“When I joined in the 90s, there was talk of us having a new hub and I’m incredibly pleased to see it finally come to fruition,” he said.
“We never would have been able to sustain demand levels with our current level of operation.
“We’ve outgrown the previous site. The patient need in Bury was so great that we had to start sharing with the fire station and now have everything under one roof.”
He added the new hub will enable more efficient operations, such as the cleaning and restocking of vehicles.
At the old site, the vehicles had to be sent away for maintenance, which meant a three-hour job could take up to a week to complete.
However, a big focus of the new site is to provide a place to support staff wellbeing, said Mr Adams.
The site has several welfare spaces for staff including a quiet room, multi-faith room, nursing room, a gym and outside wellbeing spaces.
The focus on staff’s health was also reflected by CEO Neill Moloney.
He said: “We also wanted a place where we could look after staff welfare, ensuring they have a space where they can rest and take care of their wellbeing.
“Hopefully, this site will be a place where people want to come, train and recommend to others as a great place to work.”
The facility has been designed to support the trust’s net zero carbon ambition, making it the most sustainable and lowest carbon site in the trust’s estate.
The ambulance hub has smart technologies installed, including more than 1,000m2 of photo-voltaic (PV) panels, with the aim that a significant proportion of the expected energy demand will be met through the renewable energy generated on site.
The old site, built in the 1950s, will remain operational until a decision is made regarding its future use.
“It’s really tremendous,” added Mr Moloney. “The previous site was constrained in terms of capacity, very difficult to park and the facilities we had to prepare our ambulances to get back on the road were quite limited.
“For our patients, it will mean we will be in a better position to respond to the calls they’re making so we can ensure we’ve more ambulances on the road.”
