Ambulances in Wales undergoing high-tech communications upgrade

A state-of-the-art communications upgrade of ambulances across Wales has begun.

The £23 million technology refresh will improve the way information is passed between Welsh Ambulance Service control rooms and the frontline crews delivering care to patients.

Almost 800 vehicles will undergo the installation of the high-tech Mobile Data Vehicle Solution (MDVS), which includes a new vehicle data router and tablet device.

The upgrade is expected to be complete by late spring 2024.

Jonny Sammut, the Welsh Ambulance Service’s Director of Digital, said: “Reliable communications technology is vital to keep the wheels turning on our ambulance service.

“This technology refresh signals a new era in our communications, and one which will enhance the important link between the colleagues in the control room and the crews in the community delivering care to patients.

“Collaborating with partners to source and install the new equipment means the refresh can also be completed locally, minimising the downtime of vehicles and in turn the disruption to our day-to-day operations.”

The Trust is working alongside Ambulance Radio Programme (ARP), Terrafix, Telent, Panasonic, Centerprise and Ordnance Survey (OS).

ARP Director Duncan Bray said: “ARP is pleased to see that collaboration between Panasonic and Telent will support the implementation of the MDVS into Wales. This is a prime example of collaborative working benefitting everyone involved.

“The go-live for WAST continues the ARP success of recent MDVS deployments to other ambulance Trusts nationally throughout England.”

Telent engineers will upgrade six ambulance vehicles per day, fitting ruggedised Panasonic Toughbook tablets and a vehicle data router capable of connecting to multiple bearers – including the Emergency Services Network – providing a resilient connection to mobile communications networks across Wales.

The Toughbook devices were manufactured at Panasonic’s European Configuration and Service Centre in Cardiff with components sourced from suppliers across Wales.

The new vehicle data router will run the Terrafix mobilisation software National Mobilisation Application (NMA).

The new system also integrates the most up-to-date mapping information for Wales from OS, including highly accurate road and addressing data.

Mapping updates will be streamed to ambulance vehicles regularly rather than taking them off the road for manual updates of the mapping products.

John Kimmance, Managing Director of National Mapping Services at OS, said: “Accurate and trusted OS data is being used every day to support a range of critical services, from enabling quicker responses to incidents to planning and delivering safe and secure major events.

“Every week we make tens of thousands of changes to the National Geographic Database capturing new buildings, roads, routing restrictions and addresses.

“This is essential data for all emergency responders, and it is great that the new NMA is delivering this data direct to the vehicles ensuring they are working with the same mapping as the 999 control rooms.”