The head of the region's ambulance service has pledged to deliver 'significant' improvements to response times in the coming months as hundreds of new student paramedics join the front-line.
Anthony Marsh, chief executive of the East of England Ambulance Service Trust (EEAST), said the organisation had made more than 500 offers of employment under its student paramedic programme, with 122 already working and a further 125 in training.
The under-performing trust has pledged to place 96 of its new student paramedics in Norfolk, 74 in Suffolk, and 73 in Cambridgeshire as part of its recruitment drive.
Dr Marsh added that it would take two years to turnaround the fortunes of EEAST.'The issues I inherited run very deep and we are tackling these against a backdrop of increasing 999 demand. So far this year the numbers of emergency patients calling for us has risen by more than 7pc.
'We are starting to see some improvements and over the next couple of months as hundreds more staff join the front-line we will start to see our performance against national targets improve significantly,' he said.
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