THE Welsh Ambulance Service is using new technology to deliver care closer to a patient’s home.

The ‘Luscii’ app captures a patient’s vital signs, including heart rate and blood oxygen levels, and data is sent in real-time to the ambulance control room, where remote care clinicians determine the appropriate next steps in care planning, be it a referral to the GP, self-care advice or dispatching an ambulance, if necessary.

It is hoped the technology will help fulfil the trust’s ambition of providing the right care or advice, in the right place, every time.

Liam Williams, executive director of quality and nursing at the Welsh Ambulance Service, said: “At a time of unprecedented demand on the urgent and emergency care system, we need to think differently about the way we deliver ambulance services.

“Patients are waiting far longer than they should for an ambulance, and once at hospital, can spend a considerable amount of time in the ambulance before handover to the emergency department.

“We want to transform the way emergency care is delivered by caring for more patients in their own home where it’s possible to do so, in turn safely reducing the number of patients we take to emergency department.

“To enable our people to deliver the right care or advice, in the right place, every time, we need to equip them with the right tools.

“This technology puts us firmly on that path.”

The trust is working with the Small Business Research Initiative (SBRI) Centre of Excellence and Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board to pilot the Luscii technology in a small number of care homes in north Wales.