London's need for a second emergency helicopter was today laid bare as it emerged that the capital will be without an air ambulance for three weeks.
New European regulations have prevented the charity that runs London’s Air Ambulance from using its usual replacement aircraft while its only helicopter undergoes annual maintenance.
This means that its trauma team of a hospital doctor and advanced paramedic will be unable to reach some of the 160 patients a month who suffer life-threatening injuries.
Charity chiefs today called on Londoners to support a fundraising appeal to get a second helicopter airborne by the summer. This would extend daylight flying to up to 16 hours in the summer, prevent further gaps in the service and allow it to reach an extra 400 patients a year.
Graham Hodgkin, chief executive of London’s Air Ambulance, said patients who could not be reached by the team over the next three weeks would be taken direct to one of four hospital major trauma centres by the London Ambulance Service.
He said: “I wouldn’t want the people of London to be worried. We will deliver a team through the rapid-response car. The reality is that our dispatch times are likely to take longer and therefore delivering the team is slightly diluted.
“Care is at hand and the right team will get to them as quickly as possible. But it’s not as effective as delivering that team through the helicopter.”
Last November, the charity treated 163 patients, including 61 victims of road collisions, 34 victims of stabbings or shootings and 45 people who had fallen from height. It has treated more than 32,000 patients since its launch in 1989.
It costs about £5 million a year to run London’s Air Ambulance, which is based on the roof of the Royal London hospital in Whitechapel and serves the 10 million people who live or work within the M25.
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It receives about £1.3 million in “benefit in kind” from the NHS, with Barts Health NHS Trust paying the salaries of the trauma doctors and London Ambulance Service paying for the paramedics. The rest is raised from public and corporate donations.
Chancellor George Osborne gave the charity £1 million towards the running cost of the second helicopter, and about £700,000 has been raised from corporate donors including BlackRock asset management A leasing deal for the aircraft is hoped to be concluded in the coming weeks.
London’s Air Ambulance has pioneered procedures including roadside open chest surgery, anaesthesia and blood transfusions, meaning patients have a better chance of survival.
“Even after 25 years, the first response we get from people is: ‘I didn’t know you were a charity,’” Mr Hodgkin said. “The second is they can’t believe there is a single helicopter for the whole of London.”
To donate £5 to the appeal for a second helicopter, text HELICOPTER to 70800.
