London: The London Ambulance Service (LAS) and Metropolitan Police have launched this month what is believed to be the first computer link between emergency service control rooms in the country.

The new technology will enable information to flow between the Central Ambulance Control (CAC) in Waterloo and the Police in any local Met borough or division.

The computer link has been developed as part of the e-Government Interoperability Framework (e-GIF) set up to achieve better flows of information across government and public sector organisations.

This new system will both save vital seconds in relaying details and reduce the volume of calls the LAS has to handle. Calls from the Police currently make up approximately six per cent of the total received in CAC - a figure of over 60,000 a year.

November 30, 2001 17:00