Awards for Excellence

For over 15 years, the Council of Ambulance Authorities have proudly presented the Awards for Excellence.

The Awards recognise the hard work and innovative solutions of our member services from Australia, New Zealand, and Papua New Guinea across a range of areas and representing all the people, teams and job functions that go in to running and developing a truly world-class ambulance service.

The awards are designed to encourage our members services to learn and share from each other beyond the committees, forums and networking groups that are also a vital and formal part of sharing best practice and information.

The awards are judged by a panel of independent, industry-respected judges from around the world. They give of their time and expertise freely, and we are truly grateful for their assistance and insights.

Our Judges

Freddy Lippert MD

CEO, Copenhagen Emergency Medical Services

Associate Professor, University of Copenhagen, Denmark Co-founder, Global Resuscitation Alliance, and the European EMS Leadership

Freddy K. Lippert, MD, Associate Professor, FERC, is CEO of the Emergency Medical Services in Copenhagen, Denmark.

The EMS Copenhagen covers a population of 1.7 million, that is, one third of the Danish population.

The EMS Copenhagen includes the following: Emergency Medical Dispatch, ambulance services including physician manned mobile critical care units, psychiatric mobile unit, a medical hotline 24/7, responsibility and coordination of medical preparedness on behalf of all hospitals in the Capital Region.

Executive Officer, Association of Ambulance Chief Executives

Steve has nearly 40 years of ambulance service, initially working in London and more recently with the Association of Ambulance Chief Executives in the UK.

An extensive front line clinical career included secondments as both a HEMS and Motorcycle paramedic. Steve has been lucky enough to experience a variety of ambulance related roles and leads on organising the AACE’s Ambulance Leadership Forum (ALF) conference each year.

Academic Director, The Alfred Emergency and Trauma Centre

Professor of Emergency Medicine, Monash University

Professor Peter Cameron is Academic Director of Alfred Health Emergency, and Professor of Emergency, and Precinct Lead of the Alfred-Monash Research and Education Precinct.

He is Past President of the Australasian College for Emergency Medicine and the International Federation for Emergency Medicine. He has also just completed his term as the Clinical Lead for the Emergency Clinical Care Network for Victoria.

Peter has an extensive history of practical involvement in health services planning and analysis, and a considerable research portfolio with over 700 peer-reviewed publications.

Peter is passionate about testing the orthodoxy of establishing clinical pathways in emergency and trauma medicine and is an active contributor of education and training programs at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels.

Our Judges

Tony Ahern

Board Member, St John WA

Board member, WA Primary Health Alliance

Tony Ahern was Chief Executive Officer of St John Ambulance Western Australia Limited from 2006 to 2018, when he retired after 45 years’ service. Prior to his appointment as CEO, Tony was the Finance Director/Deputy CEO for 11 years and before that the organisation’s IT Manager.

Tony served as the Chairman of the CAA’s Strategic, Business Advisory Committee for almost a decade and was a CAA Board Member for the 12 years of his term as CEO of St John WA, including three years as Chairman of the CAA Board. He has extensive Board experience currently serving on the WA Primary Health Alliance and St John Ambulance WA Boards. In addition to his business degree Tony holds a Masters in Information Systems and completed the London Business School Senior Executive program.

Mr Ahern is a Knight of the Order of St John and a recipient of the Ambulance Service Medal.

Associate Professor

Belinda Flanagan (PhD) Head of School, School of Paramedicine, University of Tasmania

Belinda is the Head of School at the University of Tasmania, leading the first School of Paramedicine in an Australian university. She has worked as a Paramedic & Registered Nurse/Midwife for 25 years.

Belinda collaborates with ambulance services in guideline development, education, research, and clinical governance.

David Waters

Chief Executive, Council of Ambulance Authorities

David Waters is the Chief Executive of the Council of Ambulance Authorities (CAA).

He concurrently holds the positions of Chief Executive of Ambulance New Zealand and is President Elect of the Aeromedical Association of Australasia (ASA).

In addition to his extensive experience in the pre-hospital sector, David holds a Bachelor of Nursing, a Post Graduate Diploma in Business Administration. He is also a graduate of the Strategic Management Executive Program, Darden University Virginia, USA.

Dr Yih Yng Ng

Director, Digital and Smart Health Office, Singapore

Deputy Clinical Director, Ng Teng Fong Centre for Healthcare Innovation, Singapore.

Dr. Yih Yng Ng is the Director of the Digital and Smart Health Office and the Deputy Clinical Director for the Ng Teng Fong Centre for Healthcare Innovation and is actively involved in population health and digital health transformation efforts in Singapore.

He is a Senior Consultant, Department of Preventive and Population Medicine at the Tan Tock Seng Hospital and concurrently serves as the HomeTeam Chief Medical Officer, Ministry of Home Affairs, overseeing administrative healthcare services and policies across the HomeTeam Departments.

He is a professor with the Lee Kong Chian-Nanyang Technological University School of Medicine, Duke-NUS Prehospital Emergency Research Centre, and the Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health.

Linda Ross

Director of Education, Department of Paramedicine, Monash University

Linda is a registered paramedic with over 30 years’ experience in the discipline as a clinician and educator.

She also has an extensive research portfolio and chairs the Australasian College of Paramedicine Research Committee.

2023 CAA