A PIONEERING electronic recording system will soon be carried by all ambulances in East Lancashire.

The UK's first electronic Patient Report Form system was introduced by Lancashire Ambulance Service in March 2002 when it was piloted in the Blackpool area.

It is a scheme which has won the ambulance service a commendation in the emergency care category of the health and social care national awards in July 2002.

And it also took joint first prize in the NHS Innovation Awards for the North West in November of the same year.

It is hoped the initiative will transform the way ambulance staff collect patient information and ultimately lead to more electronic clinical support aids. The new method of data collecting centres on a small hand held unit carried by ambulance crews instead of traditional handwritten paper patient records.

The touch screen computer prompts ambulance staff with a series of questions relating to patient details, the nature of the call-out, primary and full assessments of their condition, details of any treatment given plus many more.

All of the information is then stored on a credit card sized Smart Card inserted in the back of the unit.

On arrival at the designated hospital ambulance staff swipe the card through a card reader and the information is transferred to a paper document for hospital staff and also transferred to ambulance headquarters by electronic mail.

Paul Basto, clinical effectiveness manager for Lancashire Ambulance Service, says there are many benefits from the service, which will be implemented in all of Lancashire's hospitals by the end of March at a cost of £350,000.

He said: "For the crews it makes on-line information available which makes the process of completing the forms a lot speedier. And we hope to develop the system so we can have information for crews dealing with particular types of patient such as with diabetes or asthma.

"The protocol for dealing with those patients would then be on the system, which again serves as a prompt and makes it quicker and safer for the patient. Also, because we get the information at HQ electronically I can analyse that and work out if we are doing the best we can do."

The scheme is expected to be in use in East Lancashire within a few weeks.

Lancashire is the first trust to have all vehicles equipped with the technology.