Ambulance Services

Intro: UK ambulance services have experienced a revolution in working styles as a result of technology. ICT has been used extensively in command and control centres to make the service more efficient and responsive. New secure digital communications systems have replaced crackly broadcast systems. Satellite tracking of resources (such as ambulances, helicopters, paramedic cars and bikes) and geographical information systems allow the optimal resource to be deployed at all times by centre staff. Technology is used to analyse patterns of usage to roster (call in) the exact number of staff required. It uses geographical analysis to decide where it is best to position ambulances and other resources so that they can be deployed to nearby locations very quickly. Ambulances are placed at points that are closed in travel time to places of peak demand and are tracked at all times to show where they are.
The Staffordshire ambulance service says of the impact of new technology: “The adopting of this modern approach has resulted in remarkable results in the Trust performance in recorded response times. This has given the Trust the lead position in national ambulance table’s fir the last seven years. It has also seen dramatic improvements in the cardiac survival figures.”
The introduction of this system in London in the 1990s, however, was extremely problematic, not least because of the working practices that were brought about by the introduction of these measures.

Question: Research the impact on the working styles of ambulance workers in your area, and of the London Ambulance Service, after the introduction of new technologies.
Why have some workers objected to being sited in their “resources” in the most efficient place rather than being sited in the ambulance station? What other drawbacks have there been with the introduction of these ICT systems? What have been the benefits of these systems?

Answer: Some of the ambulance workers have objected to this new technology as they would rather use the technology in an ambulance station rather than on site at an emergency. The fact that radio controls are used to dispatch different ambulance services to different areas could be a limitation as there could be interferance with the radio signal causing a delay in information and could cost someones life. This dispatch unit is refered to as C.A.D. (Computer Aided Despatch) in the London Ambulance Service. However, some staff at central control had no confidence with the system and were not all fully trained. Also, the staff found themselves working in unfamiluar positions, and without paper backup, they found it harder to work with other collegues they had prevoiusly worked with before. So on the day, only using the computer software, was a high risk move as it could cost in the long run. Also, there are alot of imperfections int the C.A.D. system which made it difficult to make a final descition on certain matters. However, benifits of the C.A.D. system is the fact that the information can be sent to different units quickly. Also the computer organises the distrubution of the ambulance crew to make the most effect.