A day in the life of North West Ambulance Service

David Rigby, sector manager at North West Ambulance Service NHS Trust (NWAS)

David Rigby has been employed by North West Ambulance Service NHS Trust (NWAS) for over 25 years. He has spent the last 17 years in the role of sector manager and now leads an area which provides 24/7 emergency care to patients in the Fylde Coast, Central and South Lancashire with a budget of approximately £16 million. 

The area David is responsible for is home to 14 ambulance stations, 400 members of staff and encompasses three busy emergency departments including a major trauma centre in Preston and a specialist cardiac centre in Blackpool. 

David’s passion is for partnership working and he was instrumental in setting up a nationally recognised Safe Haven scheme in Blackpool to look after the night time economy, along with numerous other initiatives looking at improving patient care. In recognition of his work in partnership initiatives, David was invited to the Queen’s Royal Garden Party - the highlight of David’s career so far. 

David was also actively involved in the commissioning of a ‘blue light’ memorial on Blackpool Promenade to show support for all emergency service employees past and present. After almost 30 years in the emergency services, David still enjoys every aspect of his role and truly loves being at work. Prior to working for NWAS, David was employed as a police constable and maintenance engineer. David is married to Karen and has two children, Hollie and Liam.

Chris Ellison, head of finance for Paramedic Emergency Services, Urgent Care and 111 at NWAS

Hello, my name is Chris and I’m a member of the senior finance team at the North West Ambulance Service NHS Trust (NWAS) in the role of head of finance for Paramedic Emergency Services, Urgent Care and 111. I moved to NWAS in April 2017 after spending over eight years at Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh NHS Foundation Trust (WWL) which is where I began my NHS career. During my time at WWL I held a wide variety of positions within finance including financial control, strategic planning and divisional finance before moving in to operational management as directorate manager for scheduled care within the medicine division. This role included being part of the senior manager on call rota and gave direct insight of the many pressures the NHS faces.

Prior to joining the NHS I spent six years working as an auditor in the private sector, which is where I obtained the ACCA qualification and developed the skills and passion for getting away from the computer and out of the office to understand how everything works ‘at the coal face’. I have since been fortunate to work under directors of finance at both WWL and NWAS with a similar mind set who have promoted the benefits of this to finance staff and actively encouraged it.

I was a key part of the team at WWL who kick-started training sessions for clinicians and operational staff to teach them how the NHS finance system worked using ‘the NHS Operating Game’, which is where I enhanced my passion for close partnership working with non-finance staff. In the past few years I’ve built on this and have been a regular speaker on best practice initiatives at a number of regional and national events, such as Healthcare Financial Management Association (HFMA) conferences and Finance Skills Development (FSD) regional networks. I’m also a member of the national FFF (Future Focused Finance) finance and clinical educator network which is working on a number of exciting projects to improve the understanding of NHS finance for clinicians, managers and the public and reduce waste within the system. The support received from both WWL and now NWAS to continue to be involved with FFF has been a blessing, as has the opportunity to meet and work with like-minded colleagues nationally.

Outside of work I’m a keen follower of Burnley Football Club following the team home and away, and this season in to European competition!