500th flight of air ambulance
Thursday 16th August 2007, 5:21AM BST.
The Welshpool-based Mid Wales Air Ambulance has completed its 500th mission, which managers say justifies the decision by charity trustees to run a third helicopter.
Fundraisers have been working to keep the helicopter flying since the service was launched just over a year ago.
Paramedic supervisor at Welshpool Phil Pover said: “Reaching 500 missions in such a short space of time proves there is a demand for our services and justifies the decision by the trustees to operate a third helicopter across the centre of the principality five days a week.”
Helimed 59, part of the Wales Air Ambulance Service, has been used across a wide spread of areas in Wales and along the English border, but the greatest number of call outs came from north Powys with 261 and south Powys with 107.
Mr Pover said: “Road traffic accidents are by far the biggest call on the service, and by sheer speed of airlifting patients directly to the most appropriate hospital for their injuries, means that they have more chance of survival.”
The average call to take-off time for Helimed 59 was less than four minutes, and the average flying time to incidents was 14 minutes, 55 seconds. Patients spent an average of 16 minutes flying.
Wales Air Ambulance will stage a week-long campaign from September 24 to highlight the need for support in raising £1million for each of the helicopters each year.
For details visit www.walesairambulance.com or call 08700 720999.
* A collection box for the Mid Wales Air Ambulance was stolen from John Langford’s Food Hall in Berriew Street, Welshpool between 1.30pm and 2.30pm on Monday. Call police on 0845 3302000.
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I cannot see how merely the fact that 500 missions have been flown justifies anything?
In these days of climate change, surely the figures should ba analysed a bit more.
How many of these 500 missions were to life threatening cases?
How many were to far more minor injuries where a different, cheaper method of transport with less environmental impact would have sufficed?
Recently an air ambulance landed close to me to ferry a footballer with a broken leg to hospital. The football pitch was less than half a mile from our local hospital, next door to which is an ambulance station!
Im wondering whether these people are working on the ‘Use it or lose it’ principal a little too much.
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Fair comments. One point to mention is that minor injuries units at cottage hospitals are not equipped to deal with thinks like fractures.(And if you’re talking about a DGH that’s still irrelevant. Ambulances aren’t basesd at hospitals, and when they are parked outside the crews are handing over patients, waiting to offload patients, completeing clinical records, or possibly just unloading outpatients).
Secondly, it’s irrelevant where the ambulance station is. The ambulance may have been on another call, on standby at another station, etc etc. The number of people who expect an ambulance to turn up in seconds because ‘the ambulance station is just round the corner’ is truly staggering.
With respect, you are far too concerned with ‘climate change’ and ‘environment’. The fact is, air ambulances can make and do make the difference between life and death. Presumably you don’t want people to use airlines to fly abroad on their holidays either.
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David
I just hope you do not requested a need for their service. I feel they are not called out unless they are really necessary and i feel they do a great job.
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David, I do hope that one day you or your family don’t need the air ambulance.Im sure your principles will tell you to wait for a ambulance to transport you by road. Just hope the extra time it takes doesnt prove too vital.
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I take your comments on board, and I also hope I am never in need of their service. I would not wish such a situation on anyone.
I have no argument with the service in principal, I can see the need for it and am thankful it is there.
My post was more about asking questions than making statements, and I still believe the questions to be valid when I read an article that states that ‘the number of missions…proves and…justifies expansion.’
I am fully confident that ambulance workers and their counterparts flying air ambulances are conscientious and caring individuals who do their job for all the right reasons.
I am not so confident of the administration – the management, the supervisors, the bureaucrats who stand to gain from expansion. We have all seen what a mess they have made of our hospitals. We are currently hearing of scandals in the ambulance service involving them.
I think we have a right to know how many missions turned out to be critical, and how many, if any, were down to insufficient ambulance cover (paid for by Government) which resulted in a highly expensive air ambulance mission (possibly paid for by our donations).
If only one mission was due to this, then surely environmentally and morally it was one mission too many. We have a right to know.
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And surely if one mission as you put it was life saving and saved YOUR child or YOUR friend then surely these flights are all worth it, can you imagine someone dying at the road side and the caller being told the helicopter cannot respond as its not enviromentally friendly, i think not !!!!! do you ??
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After reading your article and response from many onlookers, I feel somewhat shocked by their response to Air Ambulance Service. I have worked for the past 20 years at a Helicopter Completion facility in Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas where the major part of our business is to equip Helicopters with Air Ambulance and Search and Rescue configurations.
Having said that, there is a great need for these Helicopters. Most people cannot even realize or visualize how critical a need there is for this service. What if you were involved in a serious car accident, let’s use an example of say a Bank Holiday weekend and everyone knows how packed and congested roads are in Britain during these weekends and the regular ground EMS vehicles cannot reach the scene and the golden hour is ticking away, whilst road crews are trying desperately to reach the scene!!
Food for thought…EMS Pilots and Crew risk their own lives to get to the scene and usually within a very short period of time!
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