St John Ambulance Guernsey is pleased to announce the appointment of their new CEO of both Charitable and Commercial Services, Heather Langlois, MSN, RN, CPNP-PC.
In recent years, Heather has led St John Training Services in Guernsey, upgrading its scope and quality. This includes the development of new online courses for greater cost-effectiveness and the improved retention of certification records for the convenience of those trained, as well as convenience and flexibility for participants. This has resulted in a greater capability to save lives in the Bailiwick.
Heather commented: “I am delighted to step up to take overall responsibility for a greater range of St John Guernsey services, including Education & Training, all Volunteer-led Services and Retail Healthcare Services. I am also passionate about our Youth Services, spanning 5-17 year olds, which has inspired many young islanders to pursue later careers as paramedics, ambulance technicians or doctors and healthcare professionals for Health & Social Care both in the Bailiwick and further afield.
Of course, the Flying Christine Marine Ambulance is crewed entirely by amazingly dedicated volunteers, who are on call 24/7 to convey patients and professional paramedics to wherever they are needed. I also salute our life-saving “Community First Responders” who are also volunteers located across Guernsey and financed by charitable donations, and who may be first on the scene in some emergencies after being deployed by the Joint Emergency Services Control Centre. We have some outstanding competent and caring front-line personnel, so it is a privilege for me to take on this leadership role and further develop our services.”
Colleague Mark Mapp at St John, who as Chief Ambulance Officer is responsible for Guernsey’s Emergency Ambulance Service, also welcomed Heather’s appointment: “I am very pleased to be working in partnership with Heather and her teams. We work very closely with the Charity volunteers, who amongst other things have provided great support over the past two years throughout the Covid pandemic. For example, their ambulance deep-cleaning efforts have helped keep the service levels of our front-line ambulance teams higher than the U.K. ambulance services which we use as our benchmarks. And the States have not had to incur the types of high back-up costs seen in parts of the U.K., including by the use of the armed services.”
St. John provides the ambulance service on behalf of the States of Guernsey through a grant from the Committee for Health & Social Care. The grant is a contribution towards the operating costs of the service, with the remaining costs being met in a variety of ways including the subscription scheme.
St John Chairman John Hollis added: “The coming post-pandemic years will be an interesting time for St John services as Guernsey seeks to ‘Build Back Healthier’ in an era of ageing demographics and strained government finances. The two teams under the leadership of Mark and Heather respectively are growing their service capabilities in line with our overall ‘Caring for Life’ ethos.”