Tag Archives: Emergency services

News, Tech, Technology

Panasonic TOUGHBOOK Selected for Major Ambulance Technology Refresh Across England and Wales

Ambulance Service Trusts enhance patient safety with Panasonic TOUGHBOOK devices in rapid response vehicles and dual crewed ambulances.

As part of the nationwide Ambulance Radio Programme (ARP), Ambulance Service Trusts across England and Wales are undergoing a significant technology refresh to increase efficiency and enhance patient safety. Panasonic TOUGHBOOK is working with long-standing critical technology partners Centerprise, Terrafix, and Telent to provide its latest rugged mobile devices to all rapid response and dual crewed ambulances.

The ARP will enable all 12 NHS Ambulance Service Trusts, serving 50 million people, to seamlessly coordinate with updated control room solutions to improve the efficiency and delivery of its service. The ARP delivers crucial technology solutions across the UK, such as patient transportation applications, to ensure effective communications between Ambulance Service Trusts, the NHS, and other frontline emergency responders.

As part of the ARP initiative, Panasonic and its partners are providing a standardised, yet flexible solution to be deployed nationally. With a variety of vehicles, models and dashboard designs, each deployment will be customised to meet individual Trusts’ needs. Using Panasonic TOUGHBOOK devices running on Windows enables additional functionalities and applications to be easily developed as these requirements change.

Panasonic TOUGHBOOK devices will enable ambulance crews to access the most up-to-date and detailed mapping of England and Wales’s rural and urban areas, through the National Mobilisation Application, developed by Terrafix. This software can be updated remotely, minimising ambulance downtime.

The initiative has already seen over 4,000 new installations of Panasonic TOUGHBOOK devices in ambulance service vehicles across England and Wales.

Stuart Murphy, Senior Programme Manager at the ARP, said, “We’re seeing next-to-no failure in those Trusts that have completed installations. With fantastic reliability, usability, crystal-clear display, first-class connectivity and mapping capability, the new solutions have received great feedback from our frontline crew, enabling them to pinpoint incident locations with far greater accuracy. Ultimately, the roll-out will lead to fewer vehicles off the road due to hardware failures, reduced downtime and better patient safety.”

Will Holmes, Business Manager for Public Sector (Fire, Ambulance & Central Government) at Panasonic Mobile Solutions, added: “This technology refresh is a game-changer for the NHS Ambulance Service Trusts across England and Wales. By integrating rugged, reliable, and highly functional TOUGHBOOK tablets into their vehicles, they set new standards for efficiency and patient safety. This upgrade ensures that our ambulance services remain at the forefront of emergency response, ready to save lives with the best technology available.”

For more information, read the case study here: https://eu.connect.panasonic.com/gb/en/case-studies/england-and-wales-nhs-trusts-ambulance-radio-programme

Law, News

Cater Leydon Millard Secures Place on Crown Commercial Service’s Public Sector Legal Services Framework

Cater Leydon Millard (CLM), a specialist employment law firm, part of the WorkNest group, has been named as a supplier on Crown Commercial Service’s (CCS) Public Sector Legal Services Framework (contract RM6240).

The new Public Sector Legal Services Framework will run from October 2022 to September 2026. This framework has been established to provide simple and compliant access to a range of legal services by Local and Regional Government, health, education, emergency services, third sector and social housing organisations.

CLM has been appointed for Lot 2a, Regional Service Provision – covering England and Wales. Their contracted specialism is employment law. CLM currently advises many health and education sector organisations, and its appointment to CCS’s Framework recognises its strong offering to the public sector.

Crown Commercial Service supports the public sector to achieve maximum commercial value when procuring common goods and services. In 2021/22, CCS helped the public sector to achieve commercial benefits equal to £2.8 billion – supporting world-class public services that offer best value for taxpayers.

Lisa Harris, Associate Director at CLM, says, “We are thrilled to be appointed again to this prestigious framework. Our selection further confirms our specialist expertise in employment law and our strong public sector credentials. The public sector is a key focus for our firm, and we look forward to continuing to work closely with our public sector clients and developing new relationships within the sector, providing practical employment law advice and solutions to their challenges.”

News

ETELM begins work on final phase of European Union-commissioned BroadWay pilot

Frequentis-led consortium down to the final two in developing interoperable Public Protection & Disaster Relief (PPDR) mobile broadband system

ETELM, the radio communications infrastructure specialist, has entered the third and final phase of its work with the BroadPort consortium to develop a pan-European interoperable mobile broadband system for Public Protection & Disaster Relief (PPDR) users.

Having successfully completed the Prototype Phase, ETELM is part of the Frequentis-led consortium that is among just two consortia left in this European Pre-Commercial Procurement (PCP) Project, BroadWay. They have now been invited to move onto the next phase, which will be to develop the prototype solution into a live, useable pilot system.

The BroadWay initiative was created by the public safety agencies from 11 European countries and is operating under the framework of Horizon 2020, a flagship EU research and innovation programme. Collectively, these agencies provide mobile communication services to around 1.4 million responders and deal with an array of crimes and disasters throughout the continent.

Where currently each country possesses its own separate system to handle mission-critical communications, the objective of BroadWay is to develop a unified solution that will allow European first responders to communicate, share and access information regardless of the country in which they intervene. This will provide operational mobility for public safety responders across Europe by linking national mission-critical mobile broadband networks to act as one.

Now at its pilot stage, the consortium is required to develop a solution that reaches Technology Readiness Level 8, a system originally developed by NASA to provide uniformity of technical maturity across different technologies. Level 8 will require a complete and fully operational system that achieves the best possible performance across each of the project’s 11 objectives.

A primary goal will be to ensure that the pilot system succeeds in being interconnected and provided as-a-service to offer the widest operational mobility. In particular, it must provide secure operational and EU interoperable communication for law enforcement agencies and other PPDR practitioners so that they are able to protect and respond in cross-border cooperation. Operational mobility of this standard will allow practitioners to operate wherever they are, whenever they need to, and with whomever they are tasked to cooperate.

Nicolas Hauswald, CEO at ETELM, said: “The impact of this innovation-led project will be felt by all police, firefighters and other emergency units when dealing with any cross-border incident or disaster as it unfolds. It will also become an essential tool in managing public safety, enabling enhanced security and more effective emergency responses.

“ETELM has been developing professional radio communications infrastructure for over 40 years, working with critical communications organisations around the globe, and we are very proud to bring our expertise to this important project.

“The demands of critical communications require not only robust and reliable solutions that can operate in any situation, no matter the environment, but also the capacity to transmit increasingly rich data without delay. Add to this the need to seamlessly integrate across numerous different jurisdictions and our challenge here is to demonstrate a single, future-proofed system that will enable emergency services, first responders and critical national infrastructure operators across Europe to complete their essential duties not only unhindered but also significantly enhanced by the technology that we are developing. It’s an exciting prospect, and we are fully committed to its success.”

The BroadWay Pilot Phase (Phase 3) begins in October 2021 and will last until September 2022.

The full BroadPort consortium, led by Frequentis, consists of the following partners: ETELM, Crosscall, Halys, Municipality of Málaga, Nemergent Solutions SL, and Universidad de Málaga. The subcontractors are: Arico Technologies, Control Center Apps GmbH, Comfone, Eutelsat SA, Lyfo, PrioCom B.V., Telefónica I+D, T-Mobile Netherlands B.V., and Virtual Fort Knox AG.

Midlands News, News, Telecoms

Simoco Accelerates Growth in UK Public Safety Market with Acquisition of Thorcom Systems

Partnership celebrated with joint presence at BAPCO 2021 Conference

Derby based critical communications company Simoco Wireless Solutions Ltd has agreed to acquire a majority shareholding in Thorcom Systems Ltd and its subsidiaries in a move which will give Simoco a platform to expand its presence in the UK emergency services market, while giving Thorcom the opportunity to access international markets such as Asia-Pacific, North America and Australia, where Simoco already has established operations. Simoco has enjoyed international success in the public safety sector and it is anticipated that this move will now accelerate its growth in the British emergency services market.

In 2019 TST Systems Ltd, the joint venture that includes Thorcom Systems Ltd, was a successful bidder on a Framework Agreement further to a procurement exercise with the Home Office.  TST became one of two suppliers of vehicle-based communications devices for use on the soon to be launched ESN network.

Simoco Wireless Solutions and Thorcom Systems Limited are privately owned British companies with a long-standing history of providing products and services to critical communications and mission critical customers in the UK and around the world. The acquisition will significantly complement Simoco’s existing range of next generation broadband communications products, designed to ensure that emergency services and other mission critical users have access to the very latest technology, specifically designed to meet the ever-evolving demands of their day-to-day operations.

Mike Norfield, group CEO of Simoco Wireless Solutions commented, “I believe we will make a strong partnership. Thorcom’s range of in-vehicle communications devices fits perfectly into our existing portfolio of broadband products and solutions which are at the vanguard of modern public safety communications.”

Mike Tubby, owner and technical director of Thorcom commented on the planned investment: “Whilst we have a long-standing experience in the emergency services market in the UK & Ireland, Simoco brings us the scale and the capability we need to reach larger UK and international markets. Combining our solutions with Simoco’s reputation for designing, building and operating complex communications networks around the globe will allow our customers to enjoy the best-in-class delivery and services to support their operations.”

The deal is expected to complete in October 2021 and the two companies will be demonstrating their combined expertise on stand D40 at the BAPCO exhibition in Coventry, UK on the 12th & 13th of October.