Dr Anthony Marsh: Ambulance staff set up petition for minister to keep boss

Anthony Marsh took on the role of chief executive of East of England Ambulance Service in January

More than 600 people have signed a petition to urge Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt to keep an ambulance trust chief executive in post.

The East of England Ambulance Service employs 4,000 staff who set it up.

The petition states Dr Anthony Marsh, whose contract ends this year, has brought positive changes to the "fragile but recovering" trust.

North Norfolk MP Norman Lamb took a group of front-line staff to hand over the petition to the Secretary of State.

"There are still significant culture difficulties throughout our ambulance trust, as outlined in the governance report written by Dr Marsh in 2013," the petition citation said.

"We have made some progress, but there's a lot more to do, and we need Dr Marsh to stay and help us achieve that.

"We believe that without Dr Marsh things will again quickly start to unravel in our ambulance trust severely impacting morale."

The ambulance service covers Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Essex, Hertfordshire, Norfolk and Suffolk

Dr Marsh, who heads the ambulance service in both the East of England and the West Midlands, has previously faced criticism over his salary.

A group of staff signatories to the petition, many of whom work shifts longer than 12 hours, also talked about the effects of stress on their lives.

Fraer Stevenson, Unison branch secretary for the trust, said: "Dr Marsh, our chief executive, has given his support to address the number one stressor of staff - late finishes, although this has yet to be actioned."

Sarah Boulton, chair of the East of England Ambulance trust, said Dr Marsh was brought in to "accelerate improvements in immediate service delivery and to build the foundations for long term sustainability for up to a two-year period".

"Now these service improvements are embedded, the time is right to recruit a new and permanent chief executive."