Air ambulance experiencing record demand
The Great Western Air Ambulance charity saw a record number of callouts last month with the crew responding to 52 incidents in a single week.
The charity’s critical care team brings the lifesaving skills of an emergency department direct to those in urgent need. Usually it responds to around five patients a day – however, the week from April 12 to 18 saw that rise to more than seven a day on average, with Friday, April 16, seeing the team attend 11 incidents alone in a single day.
GWAAC’S crew have remained ready to respond throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, stepping up to support the NHS during the critical peak of the outbreak. During this time last year, the crew saw a significant drop in their call-outs, with just 77 incidents across the whole of April, but the recent easing of lockdown restrictions has seen numbers rise even higher than they were before the pandemic.
In April 2019, the charity responded to 162 critically ill or injured patients. This year they are expecting a 20 per cent increase on these figures, responding to an emergency every three hours on average this month so
far. The team have seen a significant rise in trauma-related incidents, with the charity normally experiencing a 50/50 split between medical and trauma emergencies. In the week April 12 to 18, some 77 per cent of call-outs were trauma-related, including 13 road
traffic collisions as well as falls, stabbings and burns. The crew’s specialist skills enable them to perform procedures usually only found in an operating theatre at the roadside.
GWAAC receives no day-to-day funding from the NHS or Government
and relies on the communities it serves to raise the money needed to remain operational.
If you are interested in finding out more about your local air ambulance charity and the work it does in our region, visit www.gwaac.com