The article 999 service will get better'' in your edition of Thursday, October 25, 2007 contains a serious error. I would like the Chief Executive Tim Lynch to explain how the computer system at Wiltshire's emergency dispatch centre in Devizes has been improved.

Since bringing Wiltshire's Control inline with those in Avon and Gloucester this has been a mitigating disaster with Wiltshire Control staff battling to get familiar with a backward system following a few hours training.

The new' system Mr Lynch talks about, MIS Alert 2000 CAD as used by our colleagues in Avon and Gloucester, is an older system.

Consequently all 999 calls for an ambulance in Wiltshire are now taken in Bristol and the details are transferred by computer to the Wiltshire Control room for them to dispatch an ambulance.

What this means is that sometimes an address cannot be properly validated and will come through as being in the vicinity of' leading to a delay in responding to that 999 call. Previously when a 999 call was being dealt with by Wiltshire, the dispatcher would listen in on that call allowing them to make a quick assessment on what resources would be required.

This is no longer the case as Wiltshire Control are now reliant upon their colleagues in Bristol for all the relevant information and therefore are having to ring the caller back for more additional information at times.

The STORM control and command system Wiltshire used was linked to both our Police and Fire colleagues allowing the request for their assistance via a simple click of the mouse.

Control staff now have to telephone their Fire and Police colleagues even though they are in the same room!! The MIS Alert 2000 CAD system has a mapping system which does not go down to house level. Likewise, when the system was put in to the Wiltshire Control room, only the dispatchers had access to this mapping system.

If a vehicle should require assistance in locating an incident, they have to talk to the dispatcher for directions, assuming they were not busy dealing with dispatching resources to other 999 calls.

The dispatch of a resource to a 999 call now takes longer, with the dispatcher having to do several procedures as opposed to a simple drag and drop' procedure under the previous STORM system.

Wiltshire's STORM system allowed ALL the control staff full access to incoming 999 calls along with the mapping system, (at individual house level), as well as being able to dispatch crews to incidents at the request of the dispatcher.

This allowed a greater sense of team working than this new improved' system they are now operating. As a serving member of the Ambulance Service I have witnessed the Control staff under immense pressure and stress to the point of some virtually being reduced to tears.

We had a system in Wiltshire whereby some addresses were flagged' as being a potential safety issue for crew's, this is no longer available as these addresses were not transferred across during the change over. Wiltshire's STORM system allowed the mobilisation of resources and the movement of those resources to be done through modern touch screen technology leaving the radio and telephone system free for the passing of urgent information.

As the Chief Executive Mr Lynch your primary responsibility is not to meet Government targets but providing a service to the public and the health and safety of your staff, please can you explain how this new improved' system has helped achieve this for both Control, road staff and the public?

Mr Lynch, why have we taken a retrograde step in Wiltshire whereby Control now has to confirm a crew have received a 999 call by either telephoning or radioing them?

The MIS Alert 2000 Cad system could easily have been interfaced with the Wiltshire STORM system so why was this not done Mr Lynch?

With each Control position requiring 2 to 4 new monitors, how much has this cost Mr Lynch?

Why was this step taken when, come next summer, we apparently are going to be having a new Control and Command system in the Trust?

During the change over it was reported that the transition was smooth' if that was the case why have you received so many Incident Reports Forms' from staff on this subject Mr Lynch?

Mr Lynch I sincerely hope that things will get better because surely they cannot get any worse for the public and your staff .or can they?

NAME AND ADDRESS WITHHELD