PILOT SITE SUCCESS: NEW AIRWAVE DIGITAL RADIO.....

28 August 2007, 9:41am

PILOT SITE SUCCESS: NEW AIRWAVE DIGITAL RADIO SYSTEM ROLLED OUT FOR AMBULANCE CREWS IN ESSEX

Ambulance staff and patients in Essex are reaping the benefits of better quality voice communications and the addition of data messaging following the successful rollout of the new Airwave digital radio system across the county. Essex has been the pilot site for the Ambulance Radio Programme, with the rest of England scheduled to go live within the next 18 months.

The East of England Ambulance Service NHS Trust (EEAST) and Airwave, provider of Great Britain's emergency service radio communications network, have worked with the Department of Health to carry out installation of the new technology in 220 vehicles, including emergency ambulances, rapid response vehicles and patient transport service vehicles. The new service is delivering improvements in the quality of voice calls between the communications centre and ambulance crews, as well as carrying data messages from communications staff to all ambulances.

Using the same communications system as the other emergency services (Britain's police services already use the Airwave service and the fire service is set to roll out later this year) will provide benefits for the ambulance service in major incidents, as well as making it much easier for crews to pass information to other agencies to ensure safe and effective incident management.

Paramedic Steve Heard, a Harlow operations manager for EEAST, commented: "When dealing with an incident, big or small, the availability of information can have an incredible impact on our effectiveness. Using Airwave enables us to process and share information more quickly and accurately. We have had only positive feedback from our crews, who have already noticed the improvement Airwave is having on our operations, where saving time can mean saving lives."

Paul Leaman, EEAST chief operating officer for Essex, added: "We've been really pleased to be the pilot ambulance site for this new technology. It's taken a lot of hard work from our project management team, and our control staff and crews have done a great job adapting to the new system. These efforts are already paying off in terms of benefits for both staff and patients, and it's good to know that the lessons we've learned whilst rolling out the project will help spread these benefits to ambulance trusts across England."

David Sangster, general manager, health, from Airwave added: "You only have to look to recent events to realise that we are asking more and more from Britain's emergency services, and it's essential that they are equipped with the best tools available in order to do their job properly. We are absolutely focused on providing resilient digital communications to these critical agencies so that they can get on with what they do best - serving their communities."

Quentin Armitage, national implementation director for the Ambulance Radio Programme, Department of Health commented: "We are delighted with the positive feedback we have received from users of the new Airwave service in Essex. The lessons we have all learned from the roll-out in this pilot area will help ensure successful delivery of the programme nationally. Ultimately better communications for the Ambulance Service will enable them to continue improving patient care."

The Airwave communication system uses a type of radio network called TETRA, and is designed specifically with the emergency services in mind. The network is absolutely secure, ensuring that all communications are confidential, and highly resilient; Airwave is part of HMG Critical National Infrastructure and is designed to keep working even during major incidents when conventional mobile and fixed telephony networks may overload and fail. Although Essex is the first area to complete its implementation, the aim is to have all ambulance trusts in England running on the network by 2009.

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