Date published: 19 December 2019

An agreement has been reached between East Midlands Ambulance Service (EMAS) and Nottingham Express Transit (NET).

The potentially life-saving new partnership will see the introduction of a dedicated hotline based in the NET control room where information is fed to the call takers and ambulance dispatchers at the emergency call centre in Nottingham.

The NET control room have a bird's eye view across the entire network via CCTV and can give the most accurate and up to date information to our control room.

If a patient requires urgent medical attention but is not unconscious, as part of the agreement we will consider parking our emergency vehicles off the tram tracks wherever possible.

In certain situations, the tram driver may take the decision to transport a patient to a mutually agreed location so that when our frontline crews get to the scene, their first and main priority is the patient and not a risk assessment.

This is made possible by having designated parking spots available on certain parts of the network.

Nottinghamshire General Manager at EMAS, Greg Cox said: "We are pleased to be working in collaboration with NET to ensure we can get to patients who are using the network in a timely manner.

"The welfare of all our patients is of paramount importance to us, and we want to provide treatment in a way that causes minimal disruption to the network and other road users.

"This will be achieved through clearer communication between NET and our Emergency Operations Centre to determine the exact location of the patient and the preferred places to park our emergency vehicles.

"If it is unavoidable for our emergency vehicles to park on the tramline, our frontline crews perform a risk assessment of the area before they leave their vehicle to attend to a patient."

If parking on the tram tracks is unavoidable EMAS crews will ensure blue lights and hazard warning lights are displayed to warn any approaching trams.

Head of Operations at NET, Mike Mabey said: "The welfare of customers is always our number one priority and occasionally this may mean halting a service if a passenger falls ill and needs emergency treatment.

"By adopting an even more coordinated response to emergency situations, we will be able to stop the tram in a way that provides easier access for ambulance crews while, if possible, keep services running normally." 

The agreement has been cemented with the signing of a formal 'Memorandum of Understanding' by Greg Cox and Paul Robinson, Director and General Manager of NET.

Mr Robinson said: "We're proud to be working in partnership with EMAS on this initiative that also has the potential to save lives."