The first of the new consignment of MAN Box Body Dual Crewed Ambulances (DCAs) are due to start arriving at Make Ready Centres across the Trust.

In total, 92 new vehicles will be joining the fleet between now and the end of March. They will replace the oldest Mercedes Sprinter DCAs, along with 34 Fiats which end their lease in the summer.

“We have six vehicles at Lewes Commissioning Centre which are about to be commissioned and start being delivered over the next couple of weeks,” said Stewart Neve, Fleet Commissioning Manager.

At the commissioning centre, the vehicles are fully kitted out. Radios and MDVS are installed and CCTV remote access is set up. A full system check of the vehicle is completed, ahead of arranging delivery to a station.

Building the ambulances requires several stages, starting with MAN supplying chassis cab vehicles to WAS Poland, the vehicle converter for the DCAs. They fit a box body to the chassis, and then build it and the cab up to SECAmb’s specification, ending with a fully converted ambulance.

WAS said: “We’re excited to be working with SECAmb again and to support the Trust with 92 MAN Box Body Ambulances. We’re proud to be part of this journey.”

The MAN Box Body was the preferred DCA from four different options trialled at a roadshow which toured the Trust. A demonstrator model was then taken around SECAmb, allowing crews to provide feedback so options regarding equipment placing and storage could be tweaked before the vehicles reached the build stage.

“We have been really looking forward to seeing the new vehicles join our fleet,” said David Ruiz-Celada, Chief Strategy Officer. “Our ambulances are a key enabler to achieving high quality of care, and we should have high standards for the vehicles our clinical colleagues spend up to 12 hours a day in, sometimes more. This means they should be functional and responsive to drive and operate, as well as providing a functional clinical workspace. Critically, we need this fleet to be reliable and ready to respond when our people are.

“We have taken on board the feedback for our last Fiat build and incorporated as much of it as possible into these new 92 MAN vehicles that we will be receiving in the coming months. We look forward to hearing feedback from crews so we can make them even better for the next batch, as we expect to continue to invest in new fleet year-on-year, with another 60 to 70 coming to us next year.”