Ambulance UK December 2019

ADVERTORIAL FEATURE
OFFICIALLY LAUNCHED & READY
FOR NHSI EVALUATION
The new WAS 3.5 tonne DCA was officially launched at the
Emergency Services Show (ESS) in Birmingham on the 18th
September. As expected, this once unachievable vehicle created
a great deal of interest within the ambulance market.
The innovative 3.5t
ambulance is now
production-ready and
furthermore, it’s ready for
evaluation. John Rumsey,
Commercial Manager
at WAS UK, comments:
“This innovative 3.5t
ambulance has been
developed as a direct
result of Lord Carter’s
report and the recentlylaunched
national
ambulance specification.
The report set out a challenge
to all ambulance convertors to provide more innovative designs,
which in turn provide a more environmentally-friendly vehicle which
lowers whole-life costs into the NHS.”
In order to truly evaluate this new concept against the current national
specification, Ambulance Trusts can trial this frontline vehicle within their fleet.
This could be achieved under the NHS Standard Contract Service
Condition 39.4: ‘Ambulance trusts can trial the vehicle if they have
received written approval from NHS England and NHS Improvement
to derogate from the national specification, on an order by order basis,
which is subject to a business case from the lead CCG and trust to
that effect, clearly outlining the expected benefits and
Return on Investment’.
We also aim to have the vehicle evaluated
within NHSi’s Innovation Hub with
an intention to be included in the
national specification.
Tom Howlett, Sales
Engineering Manager at
WAS UK, explains: “This
is very much stage one
of the weight reduction
‘journey’ - we are focused
on making further savings.
Stage one gave us an
unladen vehicle weight of 2696Kg
with a full tank of fuel, our calculations then include: 450Kg of people (five
persons at 90Kg), 245Kg operational medical equipment (Current SWAST
Kit) and 30Kg of communications equipment, which totals a combined
weight of 3421Kg. We are now confident that we can include a sixth seat
in the next iteration of the vehicle.
AMBULANCE UK - DECEMBER
218
For further recruitment vacancies visit: www.ambulanceukonline.com