Digital radio upgrade: working in open speech on 13th and 21st July

With work on the digital radio upgrade underway, there are two planned dates when we will not have access to the normal EOC digital radios:

• 13th July, 6am - 1pm
• 21st July, 9.30pm – 22nd July, 6am

This means that during these times, EOC staff will be communicating through open speech on fixed base units.

When using open speech, dispatchers will need to call resources via individual call signs in order to communicate, and vice versa for crews to communicate with the EOC.

During these specified times, the EOC will be able to ‘point to point’ with resources where the need arises, for instance when passing sensitive information. We do ask however that operational resources request a ‘point to point’, rather than ‘point to point’ the EOC, to help avoid disruption.

When working on a system like this, there will be no ability to:

• request to speak (therefore calling up on open speech is the resilience)
• make a priority call (therefore calling up on open speech is the resilience, stating that the message is a priority)

Whilst working on fixed base units the emergency button remains functional and can be used.

During these times, the critical care desk (channel 202) and the incident command desk (channel 01) will still be available, but will also need to be used in open speech.

We expect that the upgrade work will have minimal disruption, and all possible resilience has been put in place to support business as usual. Thank you for your ongoing support whilst the upgrade work continues.

We've produced a handy ops update, which you can download internally from East24, with some reminders and instructions on how to use open speech; however if you have any questions on this, or the upgrade itself, you can contact Senior EOC Manager Nicholas Jones at nicholas.jones@eastamb.nhs.uk. 

Published 12th July, 2016