EHAAT makes four appointments to its Centre for Excellence

UK charity Essex & Herts Air Ambulance (EHAAT) has announced four key appointments to its Centre for Excellence.

The Centre for Excellence is underpinned by four pillars – Research and Scholarship; Innovation; Education and Training; and Community – which support three overarching clinical domains of cardiac arrest, head injury, and patient experience and outcomes. Together these create a framework whereby working collaboratively, the highest possible standards of prehospital clinical care can be reached.

Advanced Paramedic Practitioner Lisa Burrell has joined the Centre for Excellence team as Education and Training Lead. She will be primarily focused on embracing the training needs and professional development of EHAAT’s clinical teams, and the wider medical community. Working alongside colleagues, she will also be responsible for creating a strategy that focuses on sharing best practice, to ensure prehospital care is developed to make a real difference to patients and their families.

Burrell said: “I am thrilled to join such a highly motivated and talented team. EHAAT has a strong reputation for leading development in prehospital critical care, and it is a great privilege to be part of the innovative journey going forward with the Centre for Excellence.”

Consultant Neurosurgeon Professor Chris Uff has been appointed as the Centre for Excellence Academic Lead for Head Injury. His role will see him working with the clinical teams at EHAAT, and linking up with other partner organizations, to understand more about head injury and what new and innovative treatment options are available to reduce the lasting effects of what can be a catastrophic injury.

Professor Uff said: “I’m delighted to join the EHAAT team as academic head injury lead. Working with such diverse and unique talent places us in an enviable position to deliver outstanding and innovative care to our patients.”

Adam Carr has been promoted into the new role of Community Lead (Clinical) at the Centre for Excellence. In this role, Carr will deliver and oversee a coordinated community training program covering cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and defibrillators, so that the public can make lifesaving interventions in the crucial minutes following an incident. 

He said: “Over my time with EHAAT, I have seen, on a regular basis, the difference bystander CPR makes to the outcome of our patients. For this reason, one of my main initial projects is going to be ensuring CPR and AED (defibrillator) training is accessible and available to as many of the good people of Essex and Hertfordshire as possible.”

Dr Sarah McLachlan has been appointed as Centre for Excellence Research Lead. Her new role at EHAAT will be focused on building and leading a team to deliver the charity’s research and scholarship strategy. She will also lead on research collaborations with other organizations, as well as patients and members of the public. 

Dr McLachlan said: “I am delighted to have the privilege of leading the implementation of our exciting Centre for Excellence research and scholarship strategy. The strategy focuses on enhancing our understanding of patients’ experiences and outcomes, and producing high-quality evidence to help drive continual improvements in the care that we provide, especially around head injury and cardiac arrest.”