With over 2,500 employees and 70 separate premises, the trust decided that conventional keys and digilocks were no longer suitable for the job. Specialist security installer Presec Systems was called in to develop a solution for ambulance stations throughout Nottinghamshire, Leicestershire and Derbyshire.
“We formulated our solution around the Entro 5 range of entry control products from Bewator,” said Presec’s Managing Director, David Cook.
“In part, this was because the Entro 5 system is very scaleable – it can be configured to suit almost any size of installation, and it’s easy to expand.”
The first phase of the project, which is now fully operational, covers 35 of the EMAS sites. At each site, control is provided over entrance doors, drug store doors and access to the key safe.
In most cases, Bewator’s standard mullion-mount proximity readers were used, but in exposed external locations anti-vandal units, also from the Entro range, were fitted. All of the proximity readers are operated by Bewator passive encoded key-ring tags that are now carried by all EMAS employees.
The Entro 5 system at each of the sites is linked by a network connection to the EMAS headquarters in Nottingham. Bewator said this means that any reader can be instantly programmed to allow or deny access to a particular tag. Controllers can remotely determine which employees are allowed to access particular ambulance stations and even specific areas within those stations.
This ‘instant update’ facility means that lost tags or those held by former employees can immediately be removed from the system to prevent unauthorised access.
Cook said that the work Presec carried out posed challenges of its own. “We had to accommodate many types of doors from a wide range of manufacturers and, for EMAS operational reasons, the installation at every one of the 35 sites had to go live at exactly the same time!”
Chris Newton of EMAS said that employees no longer have to worry about losing keys or forgetting codes.
“With the Bewator installation supplied by Presec, our employees have fast, easy access to all of the areas they need to enter, which can make a big difference in an emergency situation.”
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