The new woman in my life ... F.R.E.D.A.

Just finished my 4 earlies (well 3 as I had a days annual leave which was lovely!) It has been a fairly exciting couple of days and I'm going to have to do 2 posts to cover them. The first one has to be about the introduction of FREDA.

First we had FRED (First Response Electronic Dispatch) which is the automated dispatch system for the FRU's. He was unwelcome in the room to start, made many mistakes which all men do so we understood and we made allowances. Now he's become so familiar we barely notice he's there. He still makes mistakes and the FRU desk are constantly cancelling crews and re dispatching but it's been alright. However he has now decided to give us the bachelor life and has found himself a wife, FREDA (First Response Electronic Dispatch Ambulances).

FREDA made a controversial entrance. Some people didn't want some new woman coming in and doing their job for them. Some people thought she would perhaps makes things a bit easier and some people kept a open mind until they could experience her first hand (me included). Although FREDA made an enthusiastic start to her LAS career she certainly wasn't happy when she was switched on in the early hours of Tuesday morning. She lasted just a few minutes before she decided that life with FRED was not a happy one so she trashed the system (woman can be very feisty!), left us on pen and paper and walked out the room.

After a days marriage guidance, a firm hand from the technical guys (she likes a bit of dominance) and a slightly new attitude, she made her second appearance at 1100 on Thursday. Our watch would have the pleasure of her company for an unspecified period of time, during which we would have plenty of time to make our introductions. Well what can I say. Introductions were thrown out the window - FREDA preferred to jump straight in and get on with the reason why she was there - dispatch, dispatch, dispatch! And boy did she dispatch!! We had crews going all over the place. Within about 30 seconds of her "going live", every desk had an allocator standing up shouting "can you cancel Z301", "I don't think Z101 can swim across the river", "Do you really need a SW crew in N7?" It was quite chaotic to say the least. There were many many teething problems. Some were genuine faults - FREDA is supposed to be able to do certain things and she wasn't doing what she was told (well let's be honest, what woman does?). Other things were problems that could only be seen once she was live so we can't really blame the engineers of the system. Her second appearance was a lot better than her first, lasting approx an hour. And although she slowed down the system a little bit, she didn't crash it. After the trial, a number of allocators went out with the managers and people who thought up FREDA to discuss pros and cons. Suggestions for changes were made and it is good to see that they are at least listening to what we have to say. It'll be interesting to see if any of these suggestions are taken up.

So what are my thoughts of my new female colleague? If I'm totally honest, I'd say mixed. I'm always open to new ideas to aid me in my work. We are here to save lives and if someone devises something that will make that quicker and easier then I am more than willing to give it a fair shot. I think the biggest thing we have to remember about FREDA is that she is an "aid" and not an "answer". Although FREDA does dispatch the nearest ambulance, it's not like we can't cancel them off if we disagree with her opinion. There is no substitute for an allocators knowledge of the area in which they work. For instance, we had 2 calls that FREDA dispatched on. Both were perfectly valid allocations that I would have made myself had the 2 calls come in separately. However, the way FREDA allocated them, meant the 2 crews would be passing each other half way to the job. This was simply rectified by switching them over. No fuss, no bother, all dealt with very quickly.

FREDA can only read the colour of a call and as I'm sure you all realise by now, the colour does not always tell the whole story. If you had the choice of a Red call for a 24YOM who says he has flu, diagnosed by the Dr, is already on antibiotics and has a cough or an Amber call for an 87YOF who has slurred speech and numbness down her left side, who would you send to first? FREDA would send to the 24YOM, some allocators may agree. Others would disagree and give priority to the 87YOF. Who is right in these situations? Where is the line drawn between stats and patient care? The 24YOM really could be having severe DIB so are we are just using past negative experience to judge him? All FREDA does is rely on the system and sends the nearest vehicle. Sectors do not exist for her - she really is the epitome of "it says London on the side".

There is a difference between genuine faults with the system (things that simply didn't work during the live test when they should have) and things that need to be rethinked because they don't work in real life. Distances FREDA can send is certainly one that needs to be looked at. I think at the moment FREDA has a 5 mile radius - this is way too big for Central crews and yet not big enough for the outer sectors where some stations first turn out is 6 miles. It is something that has already been noted and is being revised.

Nothing works smoothly on it's first attempt - nobody really expected it to. In my view, we can moan about things all we like but FREDA is still going to be put in place. It's time for everyone to look for the positives and make sensible suggestions for improvements. There were always going to be teething problems and if people just moan and say we don't want it or need it then those improvements are not going to be made. They will get lost in a sea of negativity. If you don't like how part of it works, what can you suggest that would make it better? FREDA may not be everyones first choice and she will definitely take some getting used to but in the end I have no doubt that she be the same as Fred.

Our working practice will undoubtedly have to change. The way we allocate will never be the same and there will be many more stresses and moans before we get it right. And even then it'll never be "perfect". That is an impossible task. We simply cannot make an infallible system and that is why we will always need knowledgeable and experienced allocators overseeing every decision made.

We will get used to FREDA just as we have we every other update - I'm sure there were many moans and complaints when we got the first computer in the room all those years ago. And then probably more complaints when ambulances got MDT's. We will have moaned when PRO Qa asked the questions for us and for many people "the old way" will always be the best. If new initiatives hadn't been suggested and trialed and moaned about then we'd still be on pen and paper, have a conveyor belt running through the room and the horses pulling the ambu-carts would be living in our garage!! I'm not saying FREDA is as radical or positive as any of those changes but maybe we just should give her chance before we make a final judgement.

FREDA JUDGEMENT STATUS AFTER ONE HOUR:
Impartial. Certainly wouldn't want it to go live in its current state. Can see some clever areas that could aid dispatch. Awaiting to see next trial to see changes, improvements and see if suggestions have been acted upon.