The region's ambulance service is leading the way in major incident training and how resilient it would be in a major emergency. The East of England Ambulance Service NHS Trust (EEAST) gained accreditation for its resilience training courses by the Institute of Civil Protection and Emergency Management (ICPEM), which is dedicated to international disaster studies and research.

The assessment process started last November and was extremely rigorous in its approach. Staff were tested on how they would cope given certain scenarios such as chemicals, explosions, etc.

EEAST provides the best courses in the UK, and its head of resilience and special operations, Robert Flute, said: 'Our department is proud of this achievement and EEAST is the first UK ambulance service to receive ICPEM endorsement for its portfolio of resilience training courses.

'The assessment process was extremely comprehensive and academically based.

'In times of change across the NHS, resilience is essential and we can offer command courses at all levels from operational to chief executive with the confidence that any participants will be able to demonstrate competence at the appropriate level.

'Our next target is university accreditation of our command courses via the UEA of which negotiations are at an early stage.'