The Air Ambulance - Not Just a Flying Ambulance

This week I had the pleasurable opportunity to visit one of the charities we support - The Welsh Air Ambulance.

It takes just 4-minutes for the Wales Air Ambulance to get airborne after a call comes in.

Most regions have one. But do you know what they actually do? I didn’t.

In my naivety I had made the assumption the Air Ambulance service was simply a flying ambulance. Something to get those patients in a critical condition to hospital as quickly as possible. I couldn’t have been more wrong.

What they actually are is a flying hospital. Literally A&E in the sky.

The crew typically consists of crew of three: a pilot, doctor, and a paramedic who also doubles up as co-pilot. They carry the same amount of kit as you’d find in most Accident and Emergency departments, with a lot of that kit split between two 25kg rucksacks.

A normal day for the crew is spent waiting for a “job” to come in, for much of that time the team will be in the training room. They also make a lot of time for visits like mine, where they get to give their firsthand accounts of what they do.

One of the chaps who was also on the visit told us of how 7-years ago the Air Ambulance had saved his wife’s life after she had sustained back and neck trauma from falling down the stairs at their home in rural Wales. A regular road ambulance would’ve taken too long to get to them, but the Air Ambulance did it in under 30-minutes. Phenomenal.

My visit got cut slightly short, but it did mean I got to see them mobilise. It took less than 4-minutes for the crew to go from chatting with me about what they do to being airborne. It was impressive to say the least. However, their reason for taking off wasn’t lost on me. To later be told that, that takeoff alone cost in the region of £6k was quite the shock.

It was a humbling, educational, and quite emotional visit.

The Wales Air Ambulance Charity are running a coffee and cake fundraiser in March to mark their 24th anniversary.

If you get chance to support your region’s air ambulance service please do. They offer a critical life saving service that needs to be treasured. You never know if or when you or a loved one will need them.