National Enterprise Maintenance Agreement (NEMA)

NEMA has been officially accepted and is available as of the 1st of September, 2006.  NEMA will be an exciting step forward for all Ambulance Service Trusts in terms of National standardisation and Cost. The link below to the NEMA Information Brochure contains information which will help you understand what NEMA is, what its benefits are, how it impacts you, and what the next steps will be.

The Department of Health and its Ambulance Advisors, Priority Dispatch (PDC) and the International Academies of Emergency Dispatch have been working together for almost 2 years to formulate the NEMA agreement. The motivation to introduce NEMA was to standardise the use of MPDS by uniformly providing services and products offered in relation to the use of the Medical Priority Dispatch System (MPDS).

As a result of surveys, numerous meetings, visits, etc., the Department discovered a large disparity among Ambulance Service Trusts. This inconsistency was evident in several different areas such as Software Versions, Quality Assurance, and more.  Contributing factors were the varying levels of service, changes and amalgamation of Trusts, costs and products being provided by PDC and the IAED over a long period of time. Each Trust has contracts in place with PDC and IAED which have varied widely in terms and conditions over the last 12 years. In 2004, the Department approached PDC to try and standardise products and services offered to the Trusts which led to discussions and a final agreement two years later.

The linked document below covers all the points encompassed in NEMA of which a few are highlighted here:

PDC and the IAED will create UK-based entities that will have offices in the UK.  These offices will have processing, clinical support, and technical support staff.  This, coupled with the operations in Salt Lake City, will provide 24/7 support to all the Trusts in NEMA.

All services and products related to the MPDS are covered by the NEMA agreement.  One amount each year and your certifications, recertifications, ProQA, AQUA, Cardsets, on-site visits, IT surgery visits, ACE fees, etc., are all included.

Multimedia CDE, Regional Reps for cross-agency training, dedicated website, third-party interface work, official beta group, mutually agreed acceptance processing, and more are all just some of the items now provided under NEMA.

NEMA is provided by PDC through Trustmarque Solutions.  This is a Catalist (DoH authorized catalogue listing) offering, thus signing up and participating is easy.  By taking immediate action and signing up to NEMA, your Trust can now benefit from attractive discounts which could lead up to 30% off the first annual NEMA pricing (depending on when the Trusts sign up).  Please contact the appropriate person in the contact list below to sign up.

It would be greatly appreciated if you could forward any of the information to those in your Trust that would benefit - your Chief Execs, and/or Director of Finance and/or Communication Directors and/or Project Managers.  This will serve to inform the entire organization and help make the adoption and implementation easier.

Please review all the information and feel free to contact any of the individuals listed below for more details or answers to any questions.

Ron McDaniel
Chief Planning Officer
Priority Dispatch Corp.
139 E South Temple  Ste 500
Salt Lake City, UT  84111
United States
+ 1 801 363 9127
ron.mcdaniel@prioritydispatch.net

Louise Ganley
Clinical Support Officer
Priority Dispatch Corp UK - Ltd.
Suite 7a, Froomsgate House
Rupert Street
Bristol, BS1 2QJ
United Kingdom
0808 2344896
louise.ganley@prioritydispatch.co.uk

Robert Newburn MLSE
HealthCare & Local Government Leader
Trustmarque Solutions
Trustmarque House
Alpha Court
Monks Cross Drive,
Huntington, York  YO32 9WN
0870 121 0322 (England & Wales)
0870 121 0323 (Scotland)
02890 436625 (Northern Ireland)
robert.newburn@trustmarquesolutions.com