Information Age: News, analysis & insight for IT & business leaders

London Ambulance Service reverts to pen and paper after control room glitch

A hardware fault brought down the London Ambulance Service 999 control room for 12 hours yesterday, forcing emergency operators to take down details with pen and paper and find addresses using A-to-Z guides.

The incident raised the ire of many paramedics, who hit Internet message boards to complain about the fault.

Paramedic Mark Lione told the Evening Standard newspaper that the service had “gone back to basics on the road. Usually the calls are automatically dispatched to the nearest ambulance but we have gone back to the system we used five years ago, which will inevitably take longer.”

When the computer-aided dispatch system used by emergency services fails, allocation of vehicles to emergencies is slowed as operators have to guess which ambulances are available for calls and which are transporting patients.

The London Ambulance Service said the system was restored after a faulty part was replaced. “During the intervening period we reverted to the tried and tested process of recording details of emergency calls on paper and then passing information to ambulance crews and rapid responders over the radio system,” said a spokesman.

The service is no stranger to computer failures. In 1992 the failure of a poorly implemented computer-aided dispatch system resulted in response delays of up to 11 hours, and the resignation of then CEO John Wilby. Media reports at the time sugested the delays may have contributed to up to 30 deaths.

Further reading

Staying afloat
The widespread flooding that hit the UK this summer proved a severe test for many businesses’ disaster recovery measures

Find more stories in the Security & Continuity Briefing Rooms