South East Coast Ambulance declares critical incident following IT issues

A critical incident has been declared by South East Coast Ambulance service on Thursday night (10 November) after a major technical failure affected the computer system that helps dispatch ambulances.

In a statement on Friday, SECAmb Executive Director of Operations, Emma Williams, said: "We continue to experience significant IT system issues, which are affecting our Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD) and which are preventing our systems from working fully.

"We are pleased that this morning, (Friday 11 November) we have been able to move back onto our CAD, operating it as a standalone system at our East Emergency Operations Centre in Coxheath, Kent. We are continuing to work closely with our IT providers on fully resolving the issues.

"I would like to thank all our staff and volunteers who have been working so incredibly hard to manage the impact of this, while also trying to resolve the issues as quickly as possible.

"In light of the fact we have been able to return to the use of our CAD in a limited form, going forward, the incident will be managed as an internal Business Continuity Incident (BCI).

"We would like to thank the public for their ongoing support and urge them to continue to help us manage the demand placed upon us by only calling 999 in the event of a serious emergency."