Welsh Ambulance Service launches new SMS service

THE WELSH Ambulance Service has launched an improved SMS text service which will give patients greater interaction with their transport bookings when using the Non-Emergency Patient Transport Service (NEPTS).

The SMS service is currently taken up by about a third of patients across Wales with this figure expected to grow as the service is fully rolled out to give all patients access to the improved service.

The two-way service will make the booking process much more streamlined with patients receiving a text confirming the date and time of their transport booking with an opportunity to cancel at that point if they wish.

This initial text is followed by a further reminder text on the morning of the booking request, again offering the opportunity for the patient to simply text ‘cancel’ if they no longer require transport.

A further development in April will see an additional notification informing patients when the vehicle is en route.

Karl Hughes, Head of Service for Ambulance Care, said: “This is a service development that is long overdue and will massively improve the interface between the service and the patient.

“For the patient, it’s always reassuring to get these informative texts but now they will have an added opportunity to cancel their request even up to the point where the vehicle has just left and is on its way to collect them.

“This will greatly improve our overall quality and service delivery.

“We will also continue looking at ways to enhance the service we offer by looking at other development areas that could improve the overall experience for the patient.”

The major benefit for patient is that they no longer need to call the Welsh Ambulance Service to cancel an appointment if they no longer require transport.

Instead, they are now able to simply reply to the text message to say they wish to cancel the journey in either the medium of Welsh or English.

This has several benefits as it saves the patient time on the phone, frees up a call handler who would otherwise have taken that call and manually cancelled the booking and crucially, it allows other patients to be allocated the free space on the vehicle.

Karl added: “We have a limited number of vehicles and limited capacity for transporting patients for non-emergency appointments.

"Last year, we conducted around 700,000 journeys and received approximately 84,000 cancellations.

“Many of those cancellations came on the day of the appointment, leaving no time to allocate the space to someone else.

“The new system has the potential to vastly reduce the amount of calls we receive from patients wishing to cancel a journey and additionally, will save call handlers from having to manually process thousands of calls.

“This really does have the potential to make a real difference to our service and to improve the experience for all involved.”

Currently, it is common practice for one vehicle to be used to transport several patients together which can mean going to addresses that no longer require the service but have been unable to cancel in time.

Now, those patients already on board can be spared having to travel to, and wait outside addresses of those who do not need transportation.

This should result in reduced journey times, save fuel and in turn, reduce costs and emissions.

Jonny Sammut, Director of Digital Services, said: “The Welsh Ambulance Service is always looking to embrace technology and innovation that can make a real difference to patients and the overall experience they have when using our service.

“Reduced demand on call handlers, real time updates when a vehicle is on its way, quicker and more efficient journey times, reduced fuel costs, fewer emissions and a reduced carbon footprint are just a few examples of how we are achieving this.”