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London’s first electric ambulance – what we’ve learned three months in
Having received its first electric ambulance late last year and sent it out on its first shift on New Year’s Eve, the capital’s first electric ambulance is both a novelty and a trailblazer, but does it do the job? We caught up with two of its London Ambulance Service crew to find out more.
John and Os are experienced clinicians with 18 years experience between them. They proudly showed us around the Ford electric ambulance as it took a well earned rest at the headquarters of the London Ambulance Service near Waterloo Station. To the untrained eye, this looks like a normal boxy ambulance, but on closer inspection the blue wiggle along the sides gives away its electric origins.
It’s a real privilege for the Emergency Services Times editorial team to get up close and personal with the ambulance and see what all the fuss is about. Shaving off 1.5 tonnes of weight to get this to be more efficient for the electric battery to power it to run around London’s streets was no mean feat. LAS Fleet Manager, Rob MacIntosh told me last year that they had questioned the value of every single item of kit on the diesel fuelled ambulance to see where they could shave off weight.
This brand new ambulance doesn’t have a traditional tail lift. John shows us the ease of moving the Stryker stretcher from inside the ambulance to the street; there’s no physical stress on him as the stretcher moves elegantly on to the pavement.
“Crews definitely find this system much better; they were quite anxious when we lost the tail lift, but crews prefer it now.”
Hopping up inside the ambulance – my first time – I am surprised at the blue cloudy sky on the ceiling and a picture of a field of poppies with, unexpectedly, a fox gazing at me. It’s all part of a cunning design to calm the environment, and is helped by thoughtful lighting and a nondescript box with items designed to help patients with autism adjust to the space.
As John calmly explains all the functions of the ambulance’s interior to us, it quickly becomes clear that everything has its place and even without labels, the crew know where to find each piece of kit. They are primed for everything – from the maternity kit to burns and infections, the crew supplement the super heavy kit bag with oxygen and dressings so they are ready for anything.
We meet Gino, who’s an LAS manager and goes out on calls to support paramedics. He shows us the Lifepak made by Physio Control; it is a rather expensive machine that provides lots of important vitals like heart rates oxygen levels and includes a defibrillator.
Because it’s an electric ambulance, we learn that the cabinetry is designed to be lightweight and there are less windows, just two in in the rear. Os says that it’s super quiet in the back. When he’s in there with a patient and John is driving, he can’t hear anything except the occasional creak of a cabinet as the kit inside moves about. With air con and heating better than ever, he also told us that they don’t need to open the windows and the well known super loud siren noise doesn’t penetrate the interior.
Giving the exterior the once over, I find the charging point at the front where Os opens the flap and says it’s easy to charge the ambulance and there is a fetching blue grill, another nod to its electric origins. I wonder if the charging only takes place once a 12 hour shift is over? Rob MacIntosh tells me that the plan is for every make ready station – where the ambulance is cleaned and kitted out for a new shift – to have an electric charger so that it’s just another process for the ambulance to go through before it’s on the road again.
I get to sit inside the cab – the seats looking smart with LAS regalia – and it feels high up with a small steering wheel that isn’t special to an electric ambulance. The only giveaway is the battery visual on the dashboard telling me how much charge is left. It’s as mundane as the charging information on my phone.
We spend an hour with the crew and are left with the impression that this ambulance feels modern, clean and fit to go around London clocking up a massive mileage without polluting the city and contributing to climate change. For now it’s the star of the show but will shortly be joined by a second ambulance before a further two appear later this year. It’s a slow process but it’s important to iron out any wrinkles and provide the data back to NHS England who will be watching this trial with great interest. The team there know about the emissions and will want to see great reductions over time but that’s not going to come soon.
The big question is can it complete a shift? And the answer to that so far is yes, it can. It also ticks the box when it comes to meeting standards for the design and equipping of ambulances – the all important CEN EN 1789. It’s a huge step forward and we will be looking out for more the wiggly blue line ambulances as they provide a service to Londoners in their hour of need and help save our planet along the way.
