NSW Ambulance, provider of emergency medical services in New South Wales, has upgraded its radio network to cover more areas and enhance its critical communications operations. 

The government agency delivers emergency healthcare and support, clinical care, and rescue and retrieval services across communities in NSW. It comprises more than 6,000 staff, including paramedics, doctors, nurses, and corporate personnel. 

Vertel, an Australian private telecommunications carrier, has won via competitive tender a contract to redesign its Far West Project 25 (P25) radio network.

WHY IT MATTERS

NSW Ambulance, which covers an area spanning over 800,000 square kilometres, said some locations struggled to receive coverage with its old communications network. Vertel helped resolve this limitation, along with the implementation of remote network monitoring.

According to Steven Norris, assistant commissioner and director of control centres at NSW Ambulance, the agency also needed a solution that ensures redundancy in its network and enhanced staff and patient safety.

Worker safety remains a concern for them due to cases of assaults and other violent incidents involving emergency responders. For example, one of its paramedics in June was attacked at the entrance of the Wollongong Hospital and had to undergo leg surgery.

Considering this, Vertel has placed GPS tracking on all its vehicles and a duress button for paramedics. It has placed one channel to ensure paramedics remain on the correct channel. 

Multiple levels of redundancy in the network were also created to make sure that a single failure will not lead to a collapse of the whole network. This involves two control centres: a primary centre based at Dubbo and a backup site near Wollongong.

ON THE RECORD

Commenting on the upgrade, Vertel Commercial Director Tony Hudson said: "Using our expertise in this field, we designed the NSW Ambulance Far West P25 radio network, understanding the critical nature of its operations and ensuring the network is resilient."

"The team worked closely and collaboratively with NSW Ambulance staff to create a dedicated network that ensures the safety of our staff and paramedics, is user friendly, and provides reliable coverage so we can continue to provide the best possible out-of-hospital care in remote areas of NSW," Norris of NSW Ambulance also stated.