Air ambulance kept busy with hundreds of call-outs

MORE than 500 patients have been assisted by the Devon Air Ambulance in the first half of 2021, according to the latest figures, with critical care cars deployed to around a quarter of missions.

Between January 1 and June 30, the Exeter-based aircraft experienced an extremely busy period with crews deployed to 930 incidents, serving 577 patients.

Of these missions, 45.4% were medical incidents and 54.4% were trauma incidents, with 0.2% inter-hospital transfers.

The service said it had also been a non-stop year for the charity’s critical care cars as well as its two aircraft, as they were deployed to 228 missions (24.5%), with 702 missions (75.5%) deployed to by helicopter.

A spokesperson for the Devon Air Ambulance Trust, which raises funds to keep the county’s two air ambulances flying and critical care cars on the road, said: “The charity continues to assist the critically ill and injured during its busiest summer yet, with crews combatting brutal heat in the aircraft as well as an increasing demand on the lifesaving service.

“As a charity that is 100% independent of Government funding, it continues to welcome support from local communities to keep the service running.”

The Devon Air Ambulance is 29 years old and is funded only by the generosity of the communities, businesses and friends of Devon.

In 2020 crews were tasked to 1,101 missions by helicopter and 406 missions by critical care car.

The service operates until 2am every day and in 2020 was called to 207 missions in the hours of darkness, using a growing network of community landing sites.

Cotswold Photography A total of 577 patients were helped during the first half of this year