Ambulance service outlines £25 million technology plan to improve services

The ambulance trust serving West Norfolk has announced multi-million pound plans for new technology which they say willl improve safety and patient care.

Bosses of the East of England Ambulance Service NHS Trust (EEAST) say they plan to spend more than £25 million over the next decade on the project.

Frontline members of staff will be issued with an iPad to enable access to a brand new electronic patient care record system which will be available to them on the road.

The system is intended to include patient details of previous ambulance call outs, attendances to their GP surgery and hospital, plus vital information about medication, test results and allergies.

They can also make real-time referrals to social care and child protection agencies.

Dr Tom Davis, acting chief executive at EEAST, said: “This significant investment will transform the working lives of our crews by providing them with a huge array of information at their fingertips, helping them to continue providing safe, high quality care.

“We estimate this will also reduce handover times by around five minutes, which will help our crews get back on the road more quickly by freeing up an estimated 1,680 days every single year.

EEAST is the first ambulance service globally to introduce this particular technology, and will roll out the technology from January.

The project has been funded with £5 million from NHSX, as part of its digital aspirant programme, which has been matched by EEAST.

Over the next ten years, the Trust says it will spend an extra £15 million to improve the technology so that it interacts fully with all of the different computer systems used by acute hospitals across the region.