The Welsh Ambulance Service is challenging industry to innovate the way it delivers emergency care for patients.

The Trust has partnered with the Small Business Research Initiative (SBRI) Centre of Excellence to launch an Innovation Challenge designed to find solutions which enable it to provide care closer to a patient’s home.

Innovations might include blood tests with rapid results, wearable technology solutions and mobile scanning equipment, as well as artificial intelligence to improve its current processes.

The challenge, funded by Welsh Government, is open to academia and businesses of all sizes to pitch, prototype and commercialise game-changing solutions for NHS Wales.

Jonathan Turnbull-Ross, the Trust’s Assistant Director of Quality Governance, said: “This is an exciting opportunity to work with the Welsh Ambulance Service and our partners across wider health economy in Wales to improve the quality of care at a time of unprecedented demand on the urgent and emergency care system.

“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 or in the community where it is 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 in the right place, we need to equip them with the tools and technology.

“We are thrilled to lay down this challenge to businesses and academia to support us to find new and innovative solutions.”

A previous collaboration with SBRI at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic led to the rapid sanitisation of ambulances project, which later went on to win a St David Award in 2021 in the Innovation, Science and Technology category.

Click here for more details and to apply for the Innovation Challenge.

Interested bidders can also join a virtual briefing event on February 23 from 10am until midday.