The new centre brings together the Ambulance Service’s 999 call taking and ambulance dispatch staff for its emergency ambulances throughout Northern Ireland. It uses modern command and control systems to assign clinical priority to emergency calls and geographical information systems to dispatch the nearest ambulance.
Speaking at the launch, the minister acknowledged that the new centre was “an important step forward in the wider programme of modernisation and reform currently underway within the ambulance service.”
Mr McGimpsey continued: “We must continue to press ahead with modernisation and reform to make sure that the people of Northern Ireland have an ambulance service which can meet their needs now and in the future; a service which provides the best possible standards of pre-hospital emergency care.
“To support this work and further improvement, I have made available some £14.5million capital funding and £9million additional revenue funding for NIAS over the next three years.”
During his visit, Mr McGimpsey paid tribute to ambulance staff both on the front-line and also in the control room.
He said: “We all know that there are particular challenges in the provision of pre-hospital emergency care – front-line staff don’t have the benefit of knowing exactly when and where their services will be required or what circumstances will greet them when they arrive. Yet they do arrive, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, often faced with the most difficult circumstances and conditions.
“And the reason they do reach the people who need help urgently is because of the professionalism of the staff in the ambulance control room. The work of saving lives starts immediately the control room staff answer the next emergency call.”
Notes to Editors:
In addition to the Regional Emergency Medical Dispatch Centre, NIAS has also established a Regional Non-Emergency Medical Dispatch Centre, (which includes the backup systems for the REMDC) at Altnagelvin Hospital.
NIAS's Automatic Vehicle Location Systems are now live in Rapid Response Vehicles and will be fully operational across the A&E fleet by the end of May.
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