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.
