Yorkshire Ambulance Service is to enhance the safety of its front line staff with new technology from Airwave, the UK’s leading public safety communications provider.
Over 900 front line staff are being equipped with Omniguard, a personal safety solution which provides active monitoring of their wellbeing when working alone or in potentially threatening situations.
Omniguard is designed for use with the new Airwave radio service currently being deployed to all ambulance trusts – importantly, this means there is no need to equip staff with an additional device, and Trusts can be assured of high levels of coverage and reliability.
Yorkshire Ambulance Service (YAS) worked in partnership with Airwave to support the development of Omniguard which also included a trial of Omniguard among a small group of paramedics, helping Airwave to refine the offering.
The Trust is committed to ensuring the safety of its front-line staff while they care for patients in Yorkshire and Omniguard is providing staff with the assurance that its communications centres are monitoring their safety and that they are able to get support quickly if their safety is compromised.
YAS has had very positive feedback from paramedics who took part in the trial of Omniguard – they liked the fact they could request enhanced monitoring when they felt it was needed, and found it easy to use as it worked over their new Airwave hand-portable radio.
Front line staff can activate Omniguard through a dedicated short key on their Airwave handset. This allows the control room to monitor their status and location and it triggers regular safety check messages. If the paramedic fails to respond within a set timeframe the control room can instigate support procedures. Omniguard is fully compatible with the existing emergency button on Airwave radios.
David Sangster, Director of UK Services at Airwave, said: “We’re delighted that YAS has decided to rollout Omniguard to frontline staff following the successful trial. From the outset YAS was actively involved in developing and refining the solution. This effective collaboration has resulted in an innovative technology which gives both peace of mind to staff and helps the Trust meet its duty of care obligations. No doubt this will have a knock-on effect in terms of the speed and quality of service YAS can provide to its community.”
Future development of Omniguard has also been given a new momentum as YAS has agreed to support Airwave on the development of a GPRS version for their Patient Transport Service (PTS) division.
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