EAAA’s first female doctor retires after 14 impactful years in the air
Dr Pam Chrispin is retiring from East Anglian Air Ambulance (EAAA) after 14 years with the life-saving charity and an incredible forty-year-medical-career.
Pam’s contributions to healthcare across East Anglia have been enormous, and she has proudly ‘kicked the door down for women’ along the way, becoming EAAA’s first ever female flying doctor in 2007, back when all of EAAA’s doctors were volunteers. In that time, Pam has helped to shape EAAA into the leading air ambulance service that it is today.
In 2016 Pam was one of the first doctors to be formally employed by EAAA and in 2018 became EAAA’s first Deputy Medical Director, a post she will hold up until her retirement on 31st January, following a highly distinguished career.
Pam, who lives in Diss and is 62 years old, specialised as an anaesthetist and has sat on several medical boards across the region, including with the East of England Ambulance Service (Medical Director 2010 – 2013), West Suffolk Hospital (Medical Director 2014 – 2016) and continues to be a Non-Executive Director at the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital for Safeguarding, Maternity and Children and Young People.
By flying with the air ambulance, Pam has helped countless patients over the last 14 years receive critical care in their hour of need, taking the hospital to the roadside or bedside. Through her role as Deputy Medical Director at EAAA, her legacy has involved helping the charity to better demonstrate how it is positively impacting patient’s care, by creating a formal governance structure, and in leading the clinical training and continuous education for EAAA’s doctors and critical care paramedics, nurturing the next generation. Throughout her clinical career, Pam also found time to volunteer as a doctor for Suffolk Accident Rescue Service, helping as many patients as possible receive life-saving care pre-hospital.
Dr Pam Chrispin said: “I’ve thoroughly enjoyed my time with EAAA, proving that a small middle-aged woman in glasses could do this job back in 2007 when it was, at the time, a job mainly carried out by men. A lot has changed in the last 14 years, the service is now highly professional and the care we can deliver pre-hospital is simply amazing. EAAA has moved on from being a rapid way of taking people to hospital to bringing the hospital to them.
“It’s been a huge privilege for me personally to be able to help train the next generation of pre-hospital emergency medicine specialists and to see them leap-frogging me in terms of their skills, drive and ambition to continuously improve patient care through EAAA. It’s been wonderful and I am feeling very emotional about leaving, but I’ve done my bit and am delighted to pass the baton on to the next generation. I will miss everyone dearly but am looking forward to spending more time with my family.”
Dr Victor Inyang, Medical Director at EAAA, added:
“Dr Pam Chrispin has been an inspirational leader and colleague at the East Anglian Air Ambulance. She has been at the core of developing our pre-hospital critical care service, which we are all proud of, and the underpinning clinical governance structure that ensures a high-quality service is delivered consistently to all our patients. A truly remarkable legacy. We wish her well in her next phase and thank her for the service she has given.”
Pam is retiring from EAAA but will carry on her role as a non-executive director at the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital and will work as an executive coach, while continuing her love for tennis, cycling, Liverpool FC and looking after her grandchildren.
