Having began his career as an Emergency Medical Technician Jason Killens is now Chief Executive of the Welsh Ambulance Service NHS Trust. In this special episode of the Safety Conversation Podcast, he explains how his perspective of health and safety has shifted as he moved into a leadership role from the frontline.
“As an individual frontline emergency service worker, it was more about me and my crewmate and ensuring that we were safe, be that with the kit, the vehicles or the situation,” says Jason Killens, Chief Executive of the Welsh Ambulance Service NHS Trust, and recent guest on the SHP’s podcast.
He is recalling his roots as an Emergency Medical Technician at the London Ambulance Service. Today he is in charge of one of the most important emergency services in the UK, and his attitude to health and safety has taken on a different perspective since he began his career in 1996.
“In this Chief Executive role I’ve got a much broader kind of lens, it’s not just about me and my duties I have as an individual but across the organisation and how our people – 5000 across the country here in Wales – act and keep themselves and each other safe.”
Those duties were tested in April 2021,when a non-emergency ambulance, transferring a patient to another hospital, collided with a vehicle on the opposite side of the road. The patient, 76 year-old Janet Winspear died in the crash after her stretcher harness was not secured properly. After pleading guilty, the ambulance driver Emrys Roberts was jailed for eight months.
“Let me describe it as throwing the doors open,” Killens says when asked of his first reaction to the incident. “We recognised that clearly there was going to be stuff that we needed to learn and change as a result.”
He goes onto to tell the podcast what impact the event had on him personally but also across the wider Trust, from the top to the frontline.
Given Jason’s candour this podcast offers a unique viewpoint of a Chief Executive and what actually happens when a prosecution occurs.
In the podcast, he also talks about the abuse and assault his colleagues continue to face on a daily basis, and a campaign the Trust are working on to bring awareness to the issue called, With Us, Not Against Us.
He also plots his the milestones of his career which also included a stint down under as Chief Executive at the South Australian Ambulance Service.
It’s rare to hear directly from Chief Executives on what health and safety means and in this unique podcast, Killens explains the extra responsibility it brings and how he continues to build it into the trust’s overall culture. It really is essential listening for any safety professional.
Click below to listen to the full recording
