Surrey Ambulance Signs PPP on IT System

Surrey Ambulance has announced the signing of a public-private partnership (PPP) agreement with Premier Computer Solutions for a range of electronic capacity management systems (eCMS).

The eCMS system can be used to route emergency 999 call patients to the hospital site that is most able to deal with their condition at the time at the call. This helps ensure that workload is equally distributed between providers.

Using eCMS all GP and 999 emergency referrals are advised of the real time pressures at sites across the system. Referral can be made either from a call centre or at the surgery via a web browser over NHSnet.

Designed to improve patient care and reduce the administrative burden on staff, the system has been in use in Surrey for the past four years. The new agreement between the Surrey Ambulance and Premier Computer Solutions will allow the range of services to be made available to other NHS organisations.

Chris Watts, eCMS Manager, said "Already we are piloting the use of these systems across Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire and Berkshire. Substantial interest has also been shown from several other health care systems."

Alan Kennedy, chief executive of Surrey Ambulance Service said: "We are delighted we can now help others benefit from four years of hard work. This would have not been possible without the expertise of Premier, particularly their skills in systems integration.

The agreement between Surrey Ambulance and Premier Computing Systems will cover the development, marketing, distribution and implementation of the eCMS systems.

Premier’s role will be the management of enquiries, implementation and support for organisations outside Surrey. Surrey ambulance service will provide development consultancy and operational support as required.

The eCMS system comprises of GP and 999 referral, critical care bed management, nursing and residential care home booking, at risk or vulnerability register and early warning system.