New Ops Instruction: Vehicle Charging and Medical Devices

In response to the Trust has seening an increase in failures to medical devices and stretchers, a new Ops Instruction has been produced.

There are challenges with increasing waiting times at hospitals, changes to how vehicle alternators charge ambulances at idle and the ever-increasing electrical demands from equipment.

During investigations it is noted that some vehicles which have been on hub stations for extensive periods over several days without being connected to a shoreline.

Whenever possible please ensure your vehicle is plugged in and on charge, using the correct shoreline. Ambulances are power dependent and any additional time on a shoreline significantly reduce the risk of power problems, even a short time over a meal break period helps.

The same applies for clinical equipment such as Corpuls devices, suction units and power load stretchers that all have a prescribed testing process which needs to be followed by both make ready and operational staff. This includes checking the charge status as part of the VDI process.

All ambulances and RRVs must also have an AED on the vehicle and manual suction to provide a complete redundancy for these critical bits of medical equipment.

The full Ops Instruction can be viewed online here.

Published 19th February 2022