'Bots' join ambulance Trust teams in tech revolution

A project to rollout Intelligent Automation across four ambulance service trusts has started with a “bot” supporting the Business Intelligence team at Yorkshire Ambulance Service NHS Trust.

The Northern Ambulance Alliance (NAA) is leading the programme working with Blueprism, the Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust and e18 Consulting.

Together the partnership has developed software technology that uses digital workers, or “bots,” to perform high-volume repetitive tasks across its four Trust sites, freeing up staff so they can focus on the tasks that really matter.

The Business Intelligence Team at Yorkshire Ambulance Service has been working closely with the developers to understand how the software can help with routine tasks that are highly time intensive.

The initial focus has been on creating reports for the Trust and its departments on important information such as compliance levels with statutory and mandatory training, appraisals and other workforce information.

Different reports are required daily, weekly and monthly with an estimated 600 hours of the team’s time dedicated to the task annually.

Workforce analyst Kevin Learoyd said six initial tasks were broken down for the “bot” to follow and replicate. Initial testing has been very successful and the team will be working to extend the work which can be done via automation.

“This frees up our time for more development work and to do more detailed analytics for Trust teams and departments - drilling down further into information on their behalf.

“It also ensures we have the time required to develop the ad hoc reports requested. It will be better for the team and better for the Trust as a whole.”

Graham Norton, Digital Transformation Lead for the NAA said: "These are exciting technological developments for our ambulance trusts, giving colleagues the time to really focus on other aspects of their work while the “bots” perform the time-intensive and highly repetitive tasks.”

June 2022