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Grant de Jongh
Chief Executive
Grant is the Chief Executive and co-founder of the Health Practice Associates Council (HPAC) and qualified as an IHCD Ambulance Technician in 2008. He was a senior member of local government, serving as Vice Chairman of his local council and Deputy Mayor of the town he lives in.
He worked as a consultant for South East Coast Ambulance Service NHS FT (SECAmb), and led the team that introduced the first NHS framework to govern the standards, quality and use of private-sector resources in frontline ambulance service work in England. He supported several other NHS Ambulance Services in implementing their own framework variations and set up a strategic group to help improve standards nationally.
Through compelling personal reasons associated with the loss of his brother, who died as a direct result of negligent care provided by a frontline Ambulance Technician and Emergency Care Assistant crew, he commissioned the development of the HPAC. His vision is to help improve patient safety, professional standards and accountability standards for non-paramedic ambulance clinicians by regulating them just as paramedics are. He firmly believes that just as Ireland, the USA and South Africa all regulate the roles of Paramedics, Ambulance Technicians and Emergency Care Assistants, there is no good reason for the United Kingdom not to have the same standards. Patients, relatives, the public, staff and employers deserve no less!
From late December 2020 to January 2021, he was hospitalised with severe COVID pneumonia. While still in recovery, he wrote articles about his firsthand experience and observations of the devastation COVID-19 had on patients and relatives, as well as the significant strain it was putting on the NHS. He also participated in an interview with ITV to help promote awareness of the situation in the hospitals and the message to stay safe and follow the latest COVID-19 guidance.
He has managed several national projects for the Pre-hospital Emergency Care Council (PHECC), the statutory regulator for Paramedics, EMTs and ECAs in Ireland, and continuously engages with colleagues and stakeholders in the progression of regulatory standards.