Ambulance comms roll-out gathers pace

The UK Ambulance Radio Programme has announced that London Ambulance Service NHS Trust has gone live with its new Mobile Data and Vehicle Solution.

According to a statement, roll-out of the technology has taken place across London Ambulance’s fleet of 800 ambulances and response vehicles. It includes a new national mobilisation application – including satellite navigation functionality -, as well as new in-vehicle hardware replacing legacy mobile data terminals.

The news follows an announcement made by the Ambulance Radio Programme at the end of last year that just under 1,000 MDVS installations had taken place across the country up until that point.

Discussing this at the time, a spokesperson for the organisation said: “This marks a major achievement for ARP’s national deployment of MDVS. The MDVS programme is now live across six trusts. This is a reflection of all the hard work, continuous learning and collaborative efforts between ARP, the trusts and our suppliers.”

Commenting on the London roll-out, ARP director, Duncan Bray, said: “It’s been great to work closely with the team in London Ambulance. We installed and integrated into 60 brand new London ambulances before Christmas, and now the solution is being installed onto the remaining fleet.

“The Ambulance Radio Programme has been able to support the Trust in the acceleration of implementation, in order to meet the increasing demand on the Ambulance Service in London. Well done to all involved.”

London Ambulance Service IM&T project manager, Ray Wells, said: “Delivering the project to this stage hasn’t been without its challenges. That is both from a technical point of view, but also managing the delivery of new vehicles into the country alongside surveying our entire existing fleet.

“LAS has over 20 different vehicle types in operation including bikes and motorbikes, all with differing installation requirements. Assessing and documenting all of that - alongside testing and configuring the solution - has taken a considerable effort from numerous people within the Trust and the ARP programme. They have all delivered without fail.

“Everyone engaged on the project has their day job to carry out as well as project activities. The fact we’ve now gotten to the stage where thousands of incidents have been responded to using the NMA solution, is testament to how professional and knowledgeable they all are.”

Suppliers involved in the project include Terrafix, Telent, Panasonic and Centerprise. According to the ARP all remaining trusts in England will go live with the solution over the course of this year.