At its latest meeting, the board of London Ambulance Service (LAS) shared updates on a range of digital and data programmes underway across the trust, looking at patient outcomes, core infrastructure modernisation, AI and automation, ePCR, and ambient voice technology.
A key strategic highlight offered by the board is the transition of the My Clinical Feedback digital product, co-designed by the trust to allow paramedics to receive structured feedback on patient outcomes following conveyance, into a national Federated Data Platform product. The trust has led on successful implementation across London, and will continue to act as the national reference site during national rollout in 2026/27.
“This transition delivers clear financial and strategic benefits for the trust,” LAS states. “LAS will no longer incur the annual £250k licence and support costs, contributing directly to Cost Improvement Programme targets, while securing a sustainable national home for the product with long-term support and development capacity.” Next steps reportedly include expanded functionality and integration with the London Care Record.
On overall operational stability and technology services, the board notes that there has been a reduction in tech-related incidents, which it attributes to improvements in change control, system monitoring, and “underlying infrastructure resilience”. Legacy infrastructure continues to be managed with clear mitigation plans and established escalation routes, it states, and workforce capacity within technical roles is being mitigated with targeted recruitment and use of interim support.
Work around delivery has prioritised improvements where digital systems directly impact frontline usability, safety, and workflow efficiency, the trust continues. Its PowerApps programme is said to be progressing well, developing capabilities aligned to the digital strategy, with governance, assurance, and training arrangements nearing completion and a pipeline of applications identified.
“Initial medium-term planning work reflects the increasing scale and pace of national digital mandates, including platform adoption, interoperability requirements, and data standards,” the board highlights. “While these align with the trust’s strategic direction, they place additional pressure on capacity, funding, and change bandwidth. Further work is underway to refine sequencing options and clarify the trade-offs between national compliance, local transformation, and ‘keeping the lights on’ activity.”
Opportunities from the NHSE Frontline Productivity Programme include cyber security enhancements, the expansion of AVT, improvements to network resilience, EPR optimisation, and cloud-first infrastructure, LAS outlines. Progress is ongoing on core infrastructure modernisation, including the renewal of legacy systems supporting 999. Real-time dashboards are offering improved operational visibility, and AI and automation initiatives are reported to be advancing across clinical and operational areas.
The trust has focused-in on strengthening its approach to clinical digital safety, with an independent review by ETHOS informing a draft clinical safety risk management system. DCB0160 clinical safety case reports have been completed for two key systems implemented during COVID, and a review is underway with the trust’s CCIO and chief paramedic to evaluate the approach to building “sustainable capability” in clinical safety and clinical digital leadership.
An update is also offered on the trust’s electronic transfer of care that went live with King’s College Hospitals in December, and a “Send Patient Data” button has now been enabled in the ePCR to allow clinicians to send updates manually.
A partnership with IBM is now focusing on developing a digital assistant for trust staff, minimising admin burden on HR teams, and offering access to a repository of commonly asked questions and answers relating to people and culture. The trust is exploring intelligent automation, implementing digital workers in the people and culture directorate to work on reducing costs and technological changes to improve efficiency.
“The natural next step is to look at opportunities where high volume low-level processes would benefit from automation ie a digital worker,” LAS shares. “In P&C the opportunities are considerable and to date 32 processes have been identified which are suitable for automation.” A 12-month proof-of-concept will now be undertaken to automate ten priority people and culture processes.
Wider trend: Innovation in ambulance services
London Ambulance Service (LAS) NHS Trust shared outcomes late last year from AI pilots including ambient voice and AI training simulation for staff, along with future ambitions for digital and data, and planned collaborations with the Southern Ambulance Services Collaboration (SASC) on shared infrastructure, cyber security, and more. A one-year pilot of Tortus AI ambient voice technology is underway across LAS’s clinical hub and ambulance operations, following a successful proof of concept trial funded by the Frontline Digitisation Fund. Pilots at locations including Croydon and Ilford are demonstrating improvements in patients per shift and on-scene to handover times.
South East Coast Ambulance Service (SECAmb) also launched a pilot of Tortus’s Ambient Voice solution in its emergency operations centres, looking to free-up clinician time to assist more patients. The tool listens in on conversations, transcribing spoken words into structured medical notes to be checked and approved. According to the trust, this is expected to reduce the amount of time taken by clinicians writing up notes following calls.
East Midlands Ambulance Service NHS Trust has published its Strategic Estates Plan to 2035, outlining its future state vision and plans for a strategic hub model enabled by technology. Over the next ten years, EMAS will focus on moving to fewer, “better” hubs and community standby points to support a data-led and mobile response model. Infrastructure modernisation will help to enhance patient care, improve operational efficiency, and support workforce development, the trust notes. EMAS commits to future-proofing its estate with targeted investment, investing in stations to make sure they are fit for the future and support teams to work effectively, including options for home working and flexible work spaces.
