New mapping tech to shave time off ambulance journeys

Britain’s ambulances are to be fitted with a new in-cab mapping tech that claims to shave time off responses and save lives.

After a successful pilot by the Yorkshire Ambulance Service, the National Mobilisation Application, developed by the Ambulance Radio Programme in collaboration with mobile data experts Terrafix, will be rolled out to 650 ambulances and rapid response vehicles across the nation.

The ARP was established by the Association of Ambulance Chief Executives and the Department of Health and Social Care with aims to deliver critical technological system improvements, providing enhanced communications between Ambulance Trusts, the NHS, and other emergency responders.

The new navigation system uses mapping data from the country’s national mapping service, Ordnance Survey, with around 20,000 updates uploaded to its database daily.

The technology ensures that any new roads, routing restrictions, or housing estates are included – essential information for ambulance services that must reach their destinations in the shortest amount of time possible.

The new system will stream any new updates to each ambulance using designated Wi-Fi hubs at key operational sites – an upgrade from previous systems where ambulances had to be off-road to download navigation updates.

“Every week we make tens of thousands of changes to the National Geographic Database capturing new buildings, roads, routing restrictions, and addresses,” explains John Kimmance, managing direction of National Mapping Services at OS.

“This is essential data for all emergency responders, and it is great that the new NMA is delivering this data directly to the vehicles,” he added.

ARP director, Duncan Bray added that ultimately, the aim was to have a national solution that supports all ambulance services to respond to emergencies in a quick, safe, and efficient way.

To read more stories on healthtech, click here.