Paul Fitzgerald

Paul Fitzgerald is the Equality and Inclusion Lead for East Midlands Ambulance Service and the East of England Ambulance Service.

I started working in the NHS in 1993 for North Warwickshire Mental Health Trust. I was the HIV coordinator and needle exchange development officer. I worked across North Warwickshire developing needle and syringe exchange schemes within community pharmacies, including the 24 hour scheme based in the A@E department at the George Eliot Hospital. This was one of the first in the UK following the outbreak of HIV and Hepatitis within the injecting drug taking community. I carried out pre- test and post-test counselling alongside training for other health care professionals. The trust won a best practice award for this initiative from the Department of Health.

I am a relate trained therapist and a relate trained psycho-sexual therapist.

I then went on to work in both the in-patient and out-patient units within the community hospital as the dual diagnosis officer. (Substance use and mental health) I then transferred to the psychology team at the George Eliot Hospital where I developed a range of services for the LGB and T communities.

I then took a break from the NHS and travelled across the UK and Europe specialising in equality and diversity training and latterly investigating issues of discrimination within the public and private sector. This gave me a unique perspective on the different cultures within organisations.

I am the Equality and Inclusion Lead for the East Midlands Ambulance Service and the East of England Ambulance Service and have been in post since October 2015. The role is exciting, challenging and frustrating in equal measure. I have developed several new initiatives including the Equality Crib Sheet to capture equality data in a more meaningful way. I work across a large geographical area covering 11 different counties on behalf of EMAS and EEAS.