St John volunteers and retail have new CEO
A NEW chief executive officer has been appointed for St John Ambulance Guernsey.
Heather Langlois’s responsibilities will cover both the charitable and commercial services.
The registered nurse has led St John Training Services in Guernsey in recent years, upgrading its scope and quality.
She was delighted to take overall responsibility for a range of St John Guernsey services, including education and training, all volunteer-led services and retail health care services.
‘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,’ she said.
Mark Mapp, who as chief ambulance officer is responsible for Guernsey’s Emergency Ambulance Service, also welcomed her appointment.
‘I am very pleased to be working in partnership with Heather and her teams,’ he said.
‘We work very closely with the charity volunteers, who among other things have provided great support over the past two years throughout the Covid pandemic,’ he said. ‘For example, their ambulance deep-cleaning efforts have helped keep the service levels of our front-line ambulance teams higher than the UK ambulance services which we use as our benchmarks.
‘And the States have not had to incur the type of high back-up costs seen in parts of the UK, including by the use of the armed services.’
St John provides the ambulance service on behalf of the States through a grant from 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.’
