London Ambulance Fisaco
London Ambulance Fiasco Shubham Singhi
The London Ambulance Services (LAS), the LAS is the Largest Ambulance services worldwide responding to between 2000 & 2500 a day which covers a large area of 600 Square miles with fleet of 750 vehicles. The LAS carries the responsibility of dispatching the ambulance in less than three minute of the call. (1) The service is funded by the government and the patients are not charged for that.
The London Ambulance Services (LAS) started to use computer associated system (CAD). The system collapsed two times, first attempt (1987-1990) failed. After sinking £ 7.5 million into the project the second attempt (1992) also collapsed barely 9 days after the system was launched, leading to loss of lives and financial resources.(1) Claims were maid that in the press that around 20-30 people died by late arriving of ambulance on the scene. (2)
Many Factors were responsible for the unfortunate failure of the LASCAD system like Management problem i.e lack of trust between the staff and management of LAS. (3), System Specification and Design , Staff training A 2 day training was given prior to launch which was not enough for the staff (4) , Testing and Implementation.
What could have been done to ignore this failure (5)
Apart from converting the whole system to the computerized system directly there should have been a phase wise conversion like shifting to semi –automated system then to a fully automated one. In addition a system should have been develop so as to ensure that if by any chance the system collapse or went down. The whole system went to the manual system until the fault can be recognize and fixed. (6)
Also importance should have been made on several areas such as priority accident scene demanding of urgency, a backup system should be there in the case of system failure, a different
The London Ambulance Services (LAS), the LAS is the Largest Ambulance services worldwide responding to between 2000 & 2500 a day which covers a large area of 600 Square miles with fleet of 750 vehicles. The LAS carries the responsibility of dispatching the ambulance in less than three minute of the call. (1) The service is funded by the government and the patients are not charged for that.
The London Ambulance Services (LAS) started to use computer associated system (CAD). The system collapsed two times, first attempt (1987-1990) failed. After sinking £ 7.5 million into the project the second attempt (1992) also collapsed barely 9 days after the system was launched, leading to loss of lives and financial resources.(1) Claims were maid that in the press that around 20-30 people died by late arriving of ambulance on the scene. (2)
Many Factors were responsible for the unfortunate failure of the LASCAD system like Management problem i.e lack of trust between the staff and management of LAS. (3), System Specification and Design , Staff training A 2 day training was given prior to launch which was not enough for the staff (4) , Testing and Implementation.
What could have been done to ignore this failure (5)
Apart from converting the whole system to the computerized system directly there should have been a phase wise conversion like shifting to semi –automated system then to a fully automated one. In addition a system should have been develop so as to ensure that if by any chance the system collapse or went down. The whole system went to the manual system until the fault can be recognize and fixed. (6)
Also importance should have been made on several areas such as priority accident scene demanding of urgency, a backup system should be there in the case of system failure, a different
References: - 1. London Ambulance services Software Failure, Mukhtar Adamn, Abdulhameed Alkazmi , Abdulmajeed Alsufyani , Bedour Al Shaigy , Dominic Chapman , Julian Chappell. 2. Brian.Randell , London Ambulance Services ,1992 . http:// 128.240.150.127/risks/13.88.html#subj1.1. 3. S . Flowers. Software Failure: Management Failure. John Wiley & Sons .1996, P.64 4. S . Flowers. Software Failure: Management Failure. John Wiley & Sons .1996, P.75 5. http://forstfire.awardspace.com/assing/The%20London%20Ambulance%20services%fiasco 6. Dennis A. ,Wixon B. H Teagarden D. (2009) System Analysis and design with UML 2.0 Third Edition.