Three ambulance services in the UK have been given a share of £5m to help improve patient care through technology.
South Central, West Midlands and North East ambulance services joined the Global Digital Exemplar programme in recognition of their track record of digital delivery.
The programme aims to join up and digitalise health systems to provide clinicians with more timely access to accurate information and support service change.
The money, which is being match-funded by each trust, is being used for scores of projects across all three ambulance foundation trusts, including:
- Developing the ambulance vehicle as a hub in SCAS
- Setting up live link video capability with care homes in SCAS area
- Developing the electronic patient care in WMAS to include more capability and deployment into new settings, such as community responders
- Automating processes and becoming paperless across all WMAS
- Improve NEAS-wide and personal performance information sharing internally to better empower and engage employees
- Develop a simulator which allows NEAS and other ambulance services to be able to model impacts of planned system changes
- Develop a better way of ambulance systems digitally passing patient information to hospital and urgent care systems
Members of the Association of Ambulance Chief Executives (AACE) Council, consisting of chairs and chief executives of all NHS ambulance services in the UK, heard that ambulance trusts form a critical part of the care process, bridging primary, secondary and acute care.
Phil Collins, IT lead for WMAS, said:
The initiatives we are pursuing through this programme will help us to make better use of technology to improve the care and treatment decisions our clinicians make for our patients.
Paul Nicholson, IT lead for NEAS, added:
Having been given this opportunity to become an Ambulance Digital Exemplar, we will be able to share the learning and developments with the wider ambulance sector.
Jill Lanham, of SCAS, said the experiences of all three services in the Global Digital Exemplar programme were that there was a significant focus on benefits, although the programme was better suited to acute trusts than smaller organisations such as ambulance trusts. Overall, the bureaucracy had been time-consuming, but the focus on patient benefits was welcomed.
Will Smart, chief information officer for Health and Care, said:
By stepping up to become world class, these three trusts will join the most digitally advanced healthcare organisations across the globe and help deliver a sustainable and transformed NHS.
More information is available here.
