Excellence in Technology National Operations & Emergency Centre (NOC)

Hato Hone St John

Team: Dave Richards, Tony Francis, Andy Gummer

The National Operations and Emergency Centre (NOEC) was built to operate 24/7 as an adjunct to Ambulance Communications and enact the tactical performance and operational escalation functions of Ambulance Operations. The intended purpose of the NOEC was to enable operational efficiencies, improved spans of control through removing tasks from operational managers and manage operational escalation.

One of the first technical enhancements built for the NOEC was the real time Resource Escalation Action Plan (REAP) called the Surge Plan. Live data enables the NOEC team to enact a Surge Plan, whereby each district is given a score based on variables pending incidents, vehicle utilisation, Emergency Department (ED) wait times and response times. This determines whether the ambulance service is at business as usual, or experiencing moderate, major or extreme pressure. For each level above BAU there are pre-determined levers (listed in the Surge Plan) to consider pulling to reduce system pressure.

The NOEC has a wide variety of functions including implementing ‘Surge’ actions, the point of contact for all sick/absenteeism calls, operational escalation, COVID-19 exposure reporting, HSW incident reporting, frontline logistics issues and dispatching Major Incident Support Teams. To streamline the information collection process within NOEC for the various functions and to automate subsequent steps, a NOEC Information Management System (NIMS) was built using Microsoft Power Apps. Not only does the NOEC enable us to proactively monitor and enhance our emergency ambulance response nationally, the technology developed has ensured a streamlined and efficient process. The NOEC has also been a key element in our recent response to the Auckland Flooding and Cyclone Gabrielle.