Company will provide application for communication between responders and control room
The Department of Health (DoH) has chosen mobile computing company Terrafix to work on its Mobile Data and Vehicle Solution Programme (MDVS), part of the Ambulance Radio Programme (ARP).
It has agreed on an £8.1 million deal with the company, initially to run for two years but with the option of two more, under which it will provide a mobile data vehicle solution for each of the NHS ambulance services in England, with the potential to add the Welsh Ambulance Service NHS Trust and the Scottish Ambulance Service Board.
The ARP is aimed at upgrading ambulance services’ control room and mobile data communications as the contracts for existing services expire over the next three years. It is being implemented alongside the Emergency Services Mobile Communications Programme as the service moves away from using the Airwave network.
The area covered by the deal will cover a mobilisation application for communications between the ambulances and control room, although it can extend to responders such as nurses, GPs and community responders.
Earlier in the year, the DoH signed Austrian company Frequentis AG, to provide the control room software in the ARP to the 11 English trusts in £8.2 million deal.
Terrafix already has a notable presence in the field, having won a deal in 2015 to provide the Scottish Ambulance Service with phase 1 of the Ambulance Telehealth Programme, providing a communications solution.
Image by Lee Haywood, CC BY SA 2.0 through flickr
