Scots ambulances get £48m Airwave

Should be up and running in 18 months

The Scottish Ambulance Service has signed a £48.2m contract for the implementation of the Airwave digital communications system.

Under the 10-year deal, O2 Airwave and SunGard Vivista will supply radio terminals to ambulance staff and integrated communications control systems for the three control rooms. They will equip the ambulances and Patient Transport Service vehicles with Tetra radios.

Work in Scotland will start now and will take around 18 months to complete.

Because Airwave allows users to share the same radio network during major emergencies, when the system is up and running paramedics and control-room operators will be able to talk directly with police and other Airwave users at the scene of an incident.

The digital technology offers tools that could help improve response times - such as status messaging, alert paging and incident location.

Scottish Ambulance Service chief executive Adrian Lucas said the system will improve resilience in its operations across Scotland and provide a guaranteed communications channel between the emergency medical dispatch centres and frontline crews.