14th June 2024
We are delighted to announce that Heather Foster-Sharpe, our Interim Asst Director with responsibility for Emergency Preparedness, Resilience and Response, has been awarded the King’s Ambulance Medal, for her services to health and to her local community, in the King’s Birthday Honours List.
Heather has been with the ambulance service for 30 years throughout which she has held a number of positions including Paramedic, Rapid Response Paramedic, Station Officer and Area Manger. Heather was also the service’s first HART Team Leader. Her current role is one that seeks to ensure that NIAS is prepared and ready to respond to any incident which calls for a specialist response.
Passionate about patient care Heather has always sought to develop herself and colleagues to ensure that the highest levels of clinical care are provided to patients at their time of need.
On hearing the news Heather reacted in her usual humble manner saying:
“I was shocked when I heard the news and feel very honoured. I think it is reflective of my thirty years working with the best colleagues I could have hoped for, as we serve the community of Northern Ireland in their most vulnerable times. It is not lost on me that I am a female recipient of this award and I hope that it serves as an inspiration to other females within the Service to understand that their contribution doesn’t go unnoticed.”
NIAS Chief Executive, Michael Bloomfield, is delighted that Heather has received this honour.
“I am delighted that Heather has been recognised with this honour by King Charles III. Heather epitomises everything that is good about NIAS. Her passion for ensuring the delivery of the highest standards of clinical care for patients has always been her driving force. Heather has undertaken a number of courses of study which have greatly benefitted NIAS as a service and ultimately the patients we care for. Heather is a fantastic ambassador for our service and I offer her my heartfelt congratulations on receipt of this award.”
The citation forwarded on behalf of Heather read as follows:
Heather is currently the Assistant Director (AD) of Emergency Preparedness, Resilience and Response (EPRR) for the Northern Ireland Ambulance Service (NIAS). This is a complex and challenging leadership role, responsible for the delivery of excellent EPRR services to the population of Northern Ireland (NI).
This year will be Heather’s 30th year of committed service. During this time, she has demonstrated herself to be a selfless, passionate, and tenacious leader. She is known to colleagues and to others such as the Police Service of Northern Ireland, Northern Ireland Fire and Rescue Service and the Health and Social Care Trusts within NI for her unstinting zeal, exemplary skill and knowledge and conscientious approach to ambulance care.
Heather joined the service in 1994, and has worked through all levels of the organisation, commencing work as a 19-year-old, Emergency Medical Technician (EMT). Throughout her career she has demonstrated inspirational leadership. This has resulted in her holding a variety of increasingly senior roles including: Paramedic; Station Officer; Complaints Officer; Rapid Response Paramedic with Hazard Area Response Team (HART) capability; Hospital Ambulance Liaison Officer, Divisional Area Manager and Assistant Director of EPRR. She stands out as an ambassador for strong, capable, female leadership in a service sector where leadership roles have more traditionally been held by men.
Heathers, persuasive and innovative personality and her creative approach to her role have seen her lead and deliver on a number of high profile and meritorious projects and achievements. These include development of a full time HART capability for NIAS and NI. Prior to this she had worked to deliver, for the first time in NI, a Marauding Terrorist Attack capability.
Throughout her career, and through her roles in Emergency Planning, she has led on and provided specialist ambulance services under challenging circumstances in NI including throughout the Troubles. Developing HART capability within NIAS has been a key part and over many years she has provided training and development to help others in the service to master these skills and to ensure capability and capacity across the organisation and across our multiagency partners.
Heather has focussed on self-development to ensure best outcomes for patients/service. This has needed her to balance work and study to achieve her professional paramedic qualification, a HNC in Business and Finance, qualifications in Education and Training, a BA in Business Studies and a MSc in EPRR.
Heather has provided ambulance services to Royalty and Heads of State during their visits to NI and also at complex national events (G8 / Open Golf Tournament etc). Now, as the AD for EPRR she is leading the NIAS through an ambitious programme of improvement and transformation.
Her credible, compassionate, leadership signature has been evident from the very beginning of her career and throughout her many years of exemplary service. Often described as a ‘safe pair of hands’ or ‘having a good head on her shoulders’, these colloquial descriptors get right to the heart of what makes Heather stand out professionally, that is her kindness, her tenacity and her consistent performance at a high and sustained level.
| In addition to performance in her work role she has on many occasions supported her local home community in the provision of emergency care. Often hers is the first door that is knocked on when there is a medical emergency or crisis. Recently, for example, she has activated the Helicopter Emergency Medical Service to a local emergency where she was the first responder on scene and also provided medical assistance and psychological support at the scene of a devastating attack on a neighbour which resulted in their death.
Heather also supports her local sailing club by providing voluntary emergency response to sailing incidents by acting as medical /incident rescue boat commander, skills which she is now training and supporting others to also develop. This enables her local community to participate in sailing events safely and also supports and fosters a culture of local community engagement for others, particularly young people through active role modelling.
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