May/June 2005

Three ambulance trusts hiring their vehicles from Westwood Automotive through Medi Logistics are tracking them in real time with a system from Eagle Eye. They are the Royal Berkshire, Hampshire and Dorset NHS Ambulance Trusts.

The suppliers have cooperated on the Web-based system, and say the benefits include smarter deployment of vehicles, more accurate coordination, and the ability to calculate patients' time of arrival to the minute.

Ambulance controllers using it will be able to see vehicle positions on screen-based maps using just ordinary Web browsers. The system will also provide an automated audit trail of vehicle activities.

Eagle Eye is one of the bigger telematics suppliers, claiming to have 6,000 installations in use with customers who include Britvic, Network Rail, npower and Sheffield City Council. Its products range from simple Web-based tracking systems to more advanced integrated mobile data solutions.

 

Medi Logistics is a public-private partnership that puts out tenders for private ambulance services and support contracts to NHS trusts, and provides emergency and non-emergency medical services and despatching for the entire jurisdiction served.

Westwood Automotive, a specialist nationwide contract hire company, claims to be the only company in its field to offer exclusively telematics-enabled vehicles to its hire customers.