A CONWY ambulance control room is among those to be awarded accredited centre of excellence for the quality of their service.

The Welsh Ambulance Service was awarded the status by the International Academy of Emergency Dispatch in recognition of its clinical contact centres in Conwy, Carmarthenshire and Torfaen, which handle more than half a million 999 calls a year.

The status is given to control rooms that use the medical priority dispatch system (MPDS), a universal standard for emergency dispatchers to process and prioritise incidents such as drowning, stabbing and gunshot wounds while first responders are en-route.

More than 3,000 emergency medical dispatch centres use MPDS worldwide to manage around 65 million incidents per year, however only 250 have achieved centre of excellence accreditation and just eight countries – including Wales – have been completely accredited.

“Our Clinical Contact Centre colleagues are the beating heart of our emergency ambulance service and we’re thrilled that they’ve been recognised for their commitment to excellence," said director of operations Lee Brooks.

“Every day these colleagues save lives through the advice that they give to callers and their attention to detail in getting help to patients when they need it.

“Their calm and compassionate handling of calls enables them to give instruction before an ambulance arrives.

“This is a fantastic recognition of the high quality of our 999 call taking teams within the Welsh Ambulance Service.

“Centre of Excellence accreditation is the highest honour that our centres can receive and signals to the public and our people our commitment to excellent care and service.

“Everybody in our Clinical Contact Centres should be very proud of this achievement.”