Corvanta and New South Wales Ambulance (NSW Ambulance) worked together with the NSW Telco Authority to upgrade the rural ambulance fleet’s mobile data terminals (MDTs) over 2016 – 2017.

NSW Ambulance’s MDTs and their supporting technology was over a decade old. The system needed increasing levels of maintenance in order to keep critical functions such as duress alarms, vehicle location information and data network coverage, up and running.

When the existing data radio networks were due to shut down, a replacement service was only available 24 – 30 months after decommissioning. NSW Ambulance knew an interim solution was vital to ensure that ambulance operations and critical communications could still take place.

The organisation used this event as an opportunity to replace the fleet’s end-of-life equipment and ICT infrastructure in what was called the Rural MDT Refresh Roll-Out Project. The project successfully upgraded 808 vehicles in nine weeks and was a finalist in the prestigious Council of Ambulance Authorities 2017 Awards for Excellence.

Geoff Waterhouse, senior project manager for the service’s Radio Telecommunications Capital Works Programme, told Critical Comms that NSW Ambulance was now in the middle of completing a metro roll-out that would mean ambulances in both rural and urban fleets are standardised.

“Standardisation allows greater flexibility and interoperability to move vehicles within the state, and provides cost benefits associated with having one managed service rather than two,” said Geoff.

The new technology and systems being put in place are also paving the way for innovation and modernisation.