South East Coast Ambulance Service NHS Foundation
Trust is set to begin the process of migrating to a new Computer
Aided Dispatch, (CAD), system.
The new system is well established and currently in use in three
other UK ambulance trusts.
The CAD is the system used to record all data related to 999 and
urgent requests for ambulance assistance requested of the Trust and
is primarily used by Emergency Operations Centre (EOC) staff to
assess, prioritise and, if necessary, dispatch ambulance crews to
999 calls.
Following an extensive testing and training process, staff at
the Trust’s Coxheath EOC in Kent are expected to begin using the
new system from tomorrow (5 July).
Staff in the Trust’s new Crawley EOC will be next to begin using
the new system with the Trust working towards a go-live date later
this month. Staff currently based in Banstead are due to start
using the new CAD at the same time as moving to the new Crawley EOC
in early September.
The Trust has been using its current CAD system for more than 10
years. A decision was taken by the Trust Board last year to upgrade
to a new system in order to improve reliability, user experience
and improve performance and information. A competitive tendering
exercise led to Cleric Computer Services being awarded the new
contract to implement the new CAD early this year.
‘Cleric’ have been working with ambulance services for more than
30 years ensuring they have developed a deep understanding of user
and service needs.
Feedback from staff training on the new system has been very
positive. In addition to improved reliability and performance,
other key benefits of the new system include its ease and speed of
use as well as its flexibility in order to meet any future
needs.
SECAmb Executive Director of Operations Joe Garcia said: “We’re
really pleased to be introducing a new and dynamic CAD system which
will be of huge benefit to the EOC staff and ultimately the
patients that we provide a service to. It will greatly enhance the
information capabilities to plan and forecast activity, being a
more modern, reliable and future-proofed system.
“A huge amount of work has led up to this point and I would like
thank every SECAmb colleague involved, including our ICT and
Operational Teams and every member of EOC staff for their hard work
in training on the new system.
“Along with the move to the new HQ and EOC in Crawley, the
introduction of the new CAD represents another positive step
forward for the Trust. We look forward in the coming weeks to
introducing the system across our whole region.”