Trio at West Sussex's ambulance service given MBEs in Queen's New Year's Honours
"It's a real fantastic recognition and I'm very proud of that"
Last updated 31st Dec 2020
Three members of West Sussex's ambulance service are among those to have been named in the Queen's New Year's Honours list.
The South East Coast Ambulance Service's (SECAmb) Director of Operations, Joe Garcia, Director of Quality and Nursing, Bethan Eaton-Haskins and Ambulance Technician, Peter Glover, all receive MBEs for their service and commitment over many years.
Joe, who is 57 and from Eastbourne, has spent 35 years with South East Coast Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust, which serves patients across Sussex, Surrey and Kent.
He joined in 1985, following his service in the Royal Marines during which time he saw active service during the Falklands War and in Northern Ireland.
Joe joined on an interim basis, just after the Trust was put into special measures and the entire team of executives had been moved on, before being asked to stay on a permanent basis.
His leadership was said to have been a "key factor" in the Trust being rated as Good or Outstanding by the CQC last August, the latter for patient care and for leadership.
During the COVID-19 crisis, Joe has "driven the Trust's efforts" across the entire South East of England and has delivered the Trust's best ever performance despite up to 600 front line staff sick or self-isolating because of the disease.
He is said to have gone to great personal lengths to ensure supplies of PPE and hand sanitiser for the Trust's front line workers, as well as creating and leading a massive communications drive to promote social distancing in the Trust, and introducing calls with staff up to four times a week to ensure they are kept informed.
Joe told Greatest Hits Radio West Sussex about how it felt to be given the MBE:
"I am immensely proud to be recognised for the service that I've been able to give to my fellow colleagues here at South East Coast Ambulance Service.
"It's a real fantastic recognition and I'm very proud of that.
"I obviously had no inkling that I'd been nominated.
"The first I knew about it was when I received an email from the Cabinet Office advising me that the nomination had been approved.
"This year has been unprecedented for the ambulance service, both in the fluctuation in activity that we've received and the commitment that our colleagues have had to put in, in order to be prepared to deal with patients on the front line."
Bethan, from Sevenoaks in Kent, joined SECAmb three years ago following a range of other roles in a career spanning more than 20 years.
As well as working with Joe and senior leaders on a number of key quality and patient experience improvements, Bethan has led the Trust’s COVID-19 response since the start of the year and was formally appointed as SECAmb’s COVID-19 Director alongside her Director of Quality and Nursing role.
Bethan said:
“I am incredibly humbled to have been nominated and awarded this honour. All the staff within SECAmb have worked together tirelessly as a team to ensure we can continue to provide excellent services to patients during this difficult year and I am immensely proud to have been part of that and played a role within it.”
Ambulance Technician, Peter from Frimley, Surrey, has worked for the ambulance service for 20 years.
He works annualised hours in a front-line ambulance role, completing shifts at weekends or evenings, since moving to a role in primary health care in 2017.
Peter is passionate about the teaching of CPR and life-saving skills and has played a key role in the installation of public access defibrillators within his local community and beyond.
Peter said:
“I’m gobsmacked and humbled. I still don’t really believe it’s true. Staff and volunteers at SECAmb give their very best knowing it will make a difference to patients.
"To play a small role in that is something I care deeply about and I’m honoured to be a part of it. I do this because I love it and I am so proud of my family in green, who do an incredible job day-in, day-out.”
SECAmb Chief Officer Philip Astle said:
“I am really pleased that Joe, Bethan and Peter have been recognised in this year’s New Year’s Honours.
"Their inclusion is testament to the dedication and commitment they have shown to serving their communities and helping others over many years. It is also particularly fitting that in this year, when the ambulance service has been at the forefront of responding to the pandemic, we have three members of staff on the list.
"Every hour of every day ambulance staff are doing amazing work to keep people safe. Joe, Bethan and Peter all agree that their honours should be seen as a recognition of the excellence of all those associated with the South East Coast Ambulance Service."
In total, thirteen people across West Sussex have been granted awards in the New Year's Honours list.
Here's the full list of those to have received honours in our county:
- Commanders of the Order of the British Empire (CBE):
Mark SUMMERFIELD
Lately HR Director, Crown Prosecution Service. For public service (Billingshurst, West Sussex)
- Officers of the Order of the British Empire (OBE):
John ANGELI
Director of Parliamentary Audio-Video, House of Lords. For services to Parliament (Haywards Heath, West Sussex)
Louise Olivia BEATON
Trustee, Action with Communities in Rural England. For voluntary service to Rural Communities (Chichester, West Sussex)
Joanne MONCK
Independent Advisor and Global LGBT Advocate. For services to Transgender Equality (Lancing, West Sussex)
Christopher Michael TYAS
Chair, Food Resilience Industry Forum. For services to the Food Supply Chain during the Covid-19 Response (Chichester, West Sussex)
- Members of the Order of the British Empire (MBE):
Rosalind Jane BLUNDELL
Product Manager, Digital, Data and Technology Team, Home Office. For services to Immigration and Border Technology (Horsham, West Sussex)
Sally Clare CHALLIS-MANNING
Principal, Brinsbury College, Pulborough. For services to Further Education in West Sussex (Horsham, West Sussex)
Brian Douglas KNIGHT
For services to the community in Bognor Regis and Littlehampton, West Sussex (Bognor Regis, West Sussex)
Jade-Shannon PATRICK
Founder, Daisy Chain Project, Sussex. For services to Victims of Domestic Abuse, particularly during the Covid-19 Response (West Sussex)
Frederick Giovanni Maria ST GEORGE
Co-founder, the Italian Job. For services to Charity (Steyning, West Sussex)
- Medallists of the Order of the British Empire (BEM):
Peter David KENNARD
For services to Charitable Fundraising in Worthing, West Sussex (Worthing, West Sussex)
Derek Hugh STEEL
Fundraiser, Guildcare. For services to the community in Worthing, West Sussex (Worthing, West Sussex)
Lorraine Ann WHITAKER
Lately Head of Centre Primary Unit, Alternative Provision College, Lancing. For services to Education in West Sussex (Chichester, West Sussex)