By David Meilton
The Welsh Assembly Government is giving the ambulance service £10.5m for new equipment to help cut emergency response times.
The Welsh Assembly Government is giving the ambulance service £10.5m for new equipment to help cut emergency response times.Satellite navigation and vehicle location systems along with mobile data terminals are to be installed in ambulances, Health Minister Edwina Hart said on February 18.
Response times for October 2008 showed that only 58.8% of priority calls were reached within the eight-minute target time. The new equipment will help ambulance controllers deploy the nearest ambulance to a patient, Hart said. It will also allow controllers to automatically send patient and location details to the crew.
The funding is on top of £77m already provided for extra ambulances and an updated communications system. Hart added: ‘The ability of controllers to track and deploy ambulances more appropriately will greatly improve care and outcomes for patients.’
The Welsh Ambulance Services NHS Trust welcomed the extra funding for equipment, saying it would raise radio coverage from 47% of the country to 99%.
