Ambulance trust upgrades control centre

Gloucestershire Ambulance Service to get computer-aided despatch system

Gloucestershire Ambulance Service NHS Trust is to implement computer-aided despatch and vehicle location systems to help respond to 999 calls more quickly.

Andrew Weal, project manager at Gloucestershire Ambulance Service, says the systems are part of a modernisation programme.

‘The overall objective is to introduce an emergency control centre that can adequately meet the demands of the ambulance service, not just today but for the future as well,’ he said.

‘We are looking at ways in which we can maintain our service at the same time as meeting increasing numbers of callouts.’

The control centre will process an emergency call, identify the location where the incident has taken place, and alert the nearest available ambulance or other emergency vehicle using a mobile data system.

Leif-Olof Wallin, an analyst at Gartner, says the systems will allow the Gloucestershire service to be more precise.

‘It will be able to keep much better track of each unit, probably via a location-based system backed up by GPS trackers mounted in the vehicles,’ he said.

‘Other services, such as police and firefighters, might be able to exploit routing intelligence from the system to help co-ordinate their own emergency response.’