Case Study: South East Coast Ambulance Service speeds emergency response with Soprano Design messaging solution

South East Coast Ambulance Service saves £400,000 with Soprano Design

The South East Coast Ambulance Service (SECAmb), an NHS Trust in the UK, faced a significant challenge with wasted resources. After dispatching an ambulance, operators had no way of knowing if a situation had changed, often leading to crews arriving at scenes where they were no longer needed, which consumed time and fuel and sometimes resulted in costly insurance claims from forced entry. Soprano Design, in collaboration with BT, provided a smart messaging solution to address this issue.

Soprano's solution involved sending an automatic SMS confirmation to callers after an ambulance was dispatched. This allowed callers to simply reply "cancel" if the emergency vehicle was no longer required, enabling SECAmb to immediately reroute resources. This solution saved the trust approximately £400,000 by preventing unnecessary call-outs and associated legal costs, while also ensuring ambulances reached life-threatening emergencies faster.

South East Coast Ambulance Service (SECAmb)