Trending Topics

Botched upgrade sends Australian ambulances into chaos

By Darren Pauli
Computerworld Australia
Copyright 2007 CXO Media Inc

MELBOURNE, Australia — Melbourne, Australia’s Metropolitan ambulance service, was in a “state of bedlam” last week when a botched upgrade disabled the service’s computer-aided dispatch system for 24 hours.

In addition to turning up to jobs more than 10 minutes late, multiple ambulances were mistakenly showing up to the same emergency, while others doubled back because the archaic manual radio fallback system could not determine the closet available car.

A spokesman for the Liquor, Hospitality and Miscellaneous Union (LHMU), which represents the Victorian Metropolitan Ambulance Service, said the system failed to restore after it was shut down one night last week.

Full Story: Ambulance services disrupted for 24 hours