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.
“The current EMAS estate was constructed for an ambulance service model that no longer reflects the scale, complexity, or operational needs of today’s service,” the trust shares. “Through a structured, prioritised programme, EMAS can secure an estate that is fit for purpose for the future, supporting next-generation emergency care for our people and patients.”
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. Strong digital infrastructure will allow for advanced telecommunications, cloud-based systems, and integrated technology for central operations and remote working.
Growth in Emergency Operations Centres, digital-first models, and clinical triage have led to a need for modern and tech-enabled facilities. “Without large scale transformation, EMAS faces increasing operational risks, rising maintenance costs, inefficient estate, barriers to fleet electrification, and an inability to support new models of patient care. A future-ready estate must be safe, sustainable, digitally enabled, and strategically located,” the trust explains.
The future state vision of a strategic hub model relies on the creation of community-integrated healthcare delivery points alongside centralised operational centres, according to EMAS, with digital technologies supporting information sharing and coordination of services, and flexible spaces that can adapt to changing operational needs.
New hubs will be created each year, subject to capital funding availability, the trust notes, whilst Emergency Operations Centre facilities will be developed in line with demand, digital requirements, and opportunities for consolidation.
Wider trend: Ambulance service digital transformation
South East Coast Ambulance Service has 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.
London Ambulance Service NHS Trust has shared outcomes 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 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. Another proof of concept is being conducted with Kaiwa’s AI training platform, an AI-powered conversational simulation tool to enhance emergency call taker training.
The Welsh Ambulance Services University NHS Trust board has shared its digital KPIs, work on information governance, and discussed the risks surrounding unauthorised or inappropriate use of AI. On progress around WAST’s digital plan and digital KPIs, the trust notes “significant pressures” due to competing priorities and limited capacity for digital teams, with the trust sharing ongoing efforts to recruit for 26 additional roles. An area of current focus is a refresh of the WAST electronic patient care record application, which has reportedly received formal approval. Here, the trust outlines three key mitigations to be worked on, covering the design of the ePCR user interface, clinician interaction with the ePCR, and the accuracy of the scripting to extract the data from the data warehouse to create reports.
