Another mobilising system failure

I was told on Sunday that the so called 'state of the art' mobilising system in Surrey fire control had crashed and that control operators were having to use pen and paper to record calls and all the actions taken to respond to emergencies in Surrey and West Sussex.

This message, sent to West Sussex fire stations this morning, indicates the problem is still not fixed and delayed responses are inevitable. Requesting incident details over the radio takes time and some key information will not be available. That, and the loss of mobile data terminal functions, will significantly increase control staff workload. 

For an inadequately staffed control room that increases the likelihood that emergency calls will be transferred to the 'buddy' control at Merseyside Fire & Rescue. A control room that cannot send any help! They have to contact Surrey before any help can be sent, but will face the same problems getting through that the original caller did.

With more storms forecast and likely to lead to a spike in calls, such a failure may result in significant delays to emergencies. This is not the first time the system has failed and will no doubt not be the last.

When there were failures, shortly after Surrey began handling West Sussex emergencies, Councillors asked for a detailed report. It was never produced. 

Capita has failed the Council previously, so it is concerning that their Vision mobilising system is now letting West Sussex residents down. It is no good having 'state of the art' technology if it is not reliable. Instead of glitzy extras, Capita need to pay more attention to basic resilience.

If the Scrutiny Committee is to do their job properly, they must ignore the spin and insist on a detailed report on both the current and all previous failures. Lives may depend on it. 

I hope the new Chairman, Kevin Boram, will prioritise a detailed investigation into the ongoing failures and lack of resilience.