Robert Morton is new chief executive at East of England Ambulance Service

Chief Executive Robert Morton took over the East of England Ambulance Service this week and wants to use common sense to get the best outcomes.

It could mean patients not being taken to the nearest hospital, different services in different counties and even abandoning trying to hit some response times.

Mr Morgan has spent 25 years working in the industry starting as a paramedic and a community first responder.

More recently he has been working as the chief executive at the National Ambulance Service in Ireland.

His last job was as chief executive for the South Australian Ambulance Service.

He took over from Dr Anthony Marsh who was brought in as a troubleshooter in December 2013 The service covers Essex, Suffolk, Norfolk, Cambridgeshire, Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire.

Q:What ideas can you bring from your international experience?

A: Not coming from the NHS gives you a different perspective.

From my experience in Ireland, with its rural area, and Australia, I have a clear understanding of the challenges.

Q:Are there any immediate changes you want to make?

A: I want to change our strategy and engagement with staff. I want to look at their psychological welfare and how we can roll out support and help with stress.

I will be spending time out and about on clinical shifts putting myself in their place as much as I can.

Q: Do you plan to have the same service across all six counties?

A: Leadership needs to be reasonably consistent.

In terms of the way we deliver services the future has to be listening to communities and coming up with what is best for them.

Treating West Essex the same as North Norfolk would not make a lot of sense.

Community First Responders are a really good example in terms of the impact in North Norfolk.

But in the middle of a city it could be rapid response vehicles and bikes.

Q: The service was struggling, but there were improvements under Dr Anthony Marsh. How difficult is it to come in now?

A: There is never a good time to take over an organisation that has been struggling.

The advantage of coming in now is we come from the same background.

We will continue with the recovery plan.

We need to stabilise the current performance. We are at the bottom of a curve.

We have so many students, about 600, but they are still being educated so it will take at least a year.

It will be a long, slow, gradual process of improvement.

Q: The service has improved its record at getting to Red One calls, involving a cardiac arrest or a patient who has stopped breathing, within eight minutes but is still missing Red Two calls – life threatening emergencies that are slightly less time-critical, such as strokes. What are you going to do about it?

A:You need to focus on the quality of care and not just the fallacy of response times.

With R1 it is critical to maintain the success. R2 is a huge challenge with the volume growing exponentially and it needs to be part of a wider debate.

There is no science behind R2. It is not the time which is crucial, but the type of care you deliver.

If you get there in 7m 59s but there is a bad outcome it is marked as a success.

If you get there in 8m 1 s and get a good outcome it is a failure.

It is really frustrating for our workforce.

You want to achieve targets to meet clinical needs.

Q: Handover times at hospital are poor meaning ambulances are wasting time waiting when they could be helping others. What are you going to do about it?

A: Three things. We need to make sure we have good relationships with our acute hospital colleagues so when we are under pressure they help.

We have hospital ambulance liaison officers at emergency departments and we have to look at the most appropriate place to take them. It is called intelligent conveyancing.

If we have a network of five hospitals and one is under pressure we need to be thinking intelligently.

We need to bring them to the hospital which best meets their needs which won’t always be the nearest hospital.

There is no point getting there just to end up in a queue.

Q: There are more people living here, more patients and less resources. The service is already struggling. What can you do and can you work more closely with other emergency services?

A: It is an uphill challenge. Working with the other emergency services is really important.

I want to work with my colleagues in fire and police.

We are having a really positive discussion with the fire service.

They realise the importance of making the most of public assets.

If the fire station is better placed than the ambulance station it makes sense to have ambulances there.

In the coming weeks I am hoping to get to meet fire colleagues to talk.