October 2011
East Coast Community Healthcare launched as a staff-owned social enterprise with around 850 staff.
November 2011
The GP Unit at Northgate Hospital in Great Yarmouth scored 100% in an inspection by the CQC.
February 2012
Paul Steward was appointed as ECCH’s first Chair of the Board.
July 2012
ECCH appointed Tracy Cannell as its first permanent managing director.
October 2012
ECCH celebrated its first birthday with a marketplace event for the public in Hopton where all our clinical services had a stand to showcase what they do.
September 2013
In September 2013 ECCH launched East Coast Community Access, its single point of access ‘call centre’. Within a year it was handling 12,000 calls a month.
November 2013
In November 2013, ECCH was “Highly Commended” in the Public Service Mutual of the Year category of the Philip Baxendale Awards for social enterprises.
December 2013
Our Children and Family Services were awarded UNICEF Baby Friendly Stage 3 (full) accreditation - proof that ECCH’s breastfeeding specialists provided world-leading breastfeeding advice and care.
March 2014
Visiting ECCH, The Rt Hon. Lord Maude of Horsham, then Cabinet Office Minister with responsibility for promoting social enterprise, said ECCH had “delivered significant improvements in healthcare services for local patients, demonstrating the effectiveness and flexibility of this model.”
April 2014
We launched our first Out of Hospital Team in Lowestoft. Around 150 admissions to the James Paget Hospital were avoided in its first 6 months.
May 2014
Former nurse and NHS Director Jonathan Williams is appointed as ECCH’s chief executive.
November 2014
Teresa Gooch was named Employee Ownership Champion at the Philip Baxendale Awards for her role as one of the first two Staff Directors at ECCH.
March 2015
ECCH’s Macmillan Community Cancer Matrons won the Norfolk Care Award for Excellent People Centred Care and Support.
July 2015
We raised awareness of the dangers of carbon monoxide with an event in Lowestoft which brought together ECCH teams, partner agencies and organisations. Lowestoft MP Peter Aldous opened the event in Lowestoft High Street.
July 2015
ECCH’s Physical Activity Service launched an inflatable football stadium on Lowestoft Beach and organised football and tag rugby games for children, after buying it in partnership with Sentinel Leisure Trust and Suffolk Sport.
Jan 2016
The Stop Smoking Service won a national award in the Best Health Setting Category of the British Heart Foundation’s Organiser of the Year awards for its efforts to encourage people in the Great Yarmouth area to quit on No Smoking Day.
March 2016
The Breastfeeding Support team held a special event to thank the volunteer Peer Supporters who helped scores of new mums to breastfeed.
April 2016
ECCH was commissioned to deliver a new Speech and Language Therapy service for children aged 0-19 across Norfolk.
July 2016
Our enhanced ‘hospice at home’ service was launched in partnership with Macmillan Cancer Support.
January 2017
ECCH moved into its new headquarters in Hamilton House following renovation and refurbishment.
March 2017
We welcomed our first cohort of trainees from The Prince’s Trust. Twelve young people aged between 16 and 25 joined a month long training scheme as part of the ‘Get Into Healthcare’ programme.
March 2017
We welcomed our first cohort of trainees from The Prince’s Trust. Twelve young people aged between 16 and 25 joined a month long training scheme as part of the ‘Get Into Healthcare’ programme.
April 2017
Beccles Hospital became an Intermediate Care Unit following a £1.65m refurbishment by NHS Great Yarmouth and Waveney Clinical Commissioning Group.
October 2017
Tony Osmanski, a former Strategic Director at Waveney and Suffolk Coastal District Councils was chosen to take over as ECCH’s Chair after former Chair Paul Steward left.
November 2017
ECCH was runner up for the Employee Ownership Association’s Positive Impact of the Year award, and Staff Directors Ali Jennings and Simon Drewett were highly commended as Employee Owners of the Year.
March 2018
When heavy snow fell across the country, our staff went the extra mile to do their jobs, with some community nurses completing their visits to patients with the help of local farmers.
June 2018
Former Secretary of State for Health Patricia Hewitt praised the passion of staff at East Coast Community Healthcare when she visited ECCH in her role as independent chair of the Norfolk and Waveney Sustainability and Transformation Partnership.
November 2018
ECCH was voted runner-up Public Service Mutual of the Year in the prestigious UK Employee Ownership Association (EOA) awards, as well as being highly commended for the Culture Award.
December 2018
ECCH won the Best Coaching and Mentoring Initiative category at the CAKE People Development Awards.
Jan 2019
ECCH was awarded the contract to provide community services and specialist palliative care to adults across Great Yarmouth and Waveney under a new £207m contract.
February 2019
We topped the tables as the highest performing community health organisation in the country for staff flu vaccinations, and also the highest performing healthcare organisation in the eastern region for the third year running.
May 2019
ECCH and its partner provider of specialist palliative care, St Elizabeth Hospice, launched a day care service at Beccles Hospital.
July 2019
Lead Nurse for Waveney Primary Care Network Shona Andrews and Locality Lead for Lowestoft Primary Care Network Kate Spence were awarded the title of Queen’s Nurse by the community nursing charity The Queen’s Nursing Institute.
September 2019
ECCH was recognised in the 2019 Parliamentary Review as an example of best practice in the health sector.
September 2019
ECCH was awarded the RISE (Research, Innovation, Sustainability and Enterprise) award for Social Value by the Sustainable Ecological Engineering Design Society in recognition of research carried out into the impact of warm homes on people’s health.
November 2019
ECCH was voted runner-up Public Service Mutual of the Year in the UK Employee Ownership Association awards for the second year.
February 2020
Our Great Yarmouth and Northern Villages Primary Care Home team, together with The Vineries care home in Hemsby, won the Norfolk Care Award for Collaborative Working. It recognised their work to provide ‘beds with care’ for patients who do not need to be admitted to hospital, but require extra support.
March 2020
ECCH donated a total of £13,200 to local charities, shared equally between The Benjamin Foundation, Waveney Sailability and the Salvation Army, to further their work in our local communities.
July 2020
ECCH and St Elizabeth Hospice celebrate success following the partnership’s inaugural year of free specialist palliative care provision in Great Yarmouth and Waveney during which more than 1,000 patients, living with conditions such as cancer, heart failure, pulmonary hypertension and neurological disorder, received free care.
September 2020
Locality Primary Care Home Lead Kate Spence was awarded the Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother Award for Outstanding Service by The Queen’s Nursing Institute.
November 2020
Former BT Transformation Director Ian Hutchison appointed as ECCH’s chief executive on the retirement of Jonathan Williams.
January 2021
Tissue Viability Specialist Nurse Jayne Jode was awarded the Chief Nursing Officer's Silver Award in recognition for her work to improve the care of patients who have skin tears and pressure ulcers in Great Yarmouth and Waveney.
April 2021
District Nurse and Clinical Educator Leigh Hewitt was awarded the Philip Goodeve-Docker Memorial Prize by the Queen’s Nursing Institute as the most outstanding district nursing student at the University of Suffolk where he studied for the Specialist Practice District Nursing degree.
Peter Aldous MP visited Beccles Hospital to help us mark our 10th birthday. He told staff in our Waveney Primary Care Home team he was impressed with the way they work in partnership with GPs, acute trusts and other health and social care professions, “breaking down the silos in healthcare” to deliver high quality patient care for our communities.
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