The County Air Ambulance Trust, the Midlands oldest independent air ambulance Charity formed in 1993, is bringing new or improved helicopter access to all key Accident and Emergency Hospitals and Trauma Centres with the full support of air ambulance operators and NHS Trust Hospitals in the Region.
Agreements have already been reached with Birmingham Heartlands and Oswestry Hospitals where work has already commenced, negotiations are in an advanced stage with the Bristol Royal Infirmary and the Leicester Royal Infirmary, and discussions are taking place with the Queen’s Medical Centre in Nottingham which have all been identified as requiring improved helipad facilities.
A new Helicopter Emergency Landing Pad Appeal (H E L P) has been established to raise all the funds needed to construct or update existing helipads and ensure that all new hospitals have suitable helipad access in the future.
As Tony Bateson, Director of the County Air Ambulance Trust explains: “Air ambulances are by far the most effective way of transporting critically injured or ill patients to the hospital most suited to their needs. However if an air ambulance takes a patient to the specialist spinal unit at Oswestry, the helicopter has to land
in an adjacent sports field where the patient was taken more than 80 metres over poorly surfaced paths to the admissions area. A complete overhaul of these facilities including a smooth surface and an under cover route has now commenced.”
Wendy Farrington Chadd, Chief Executive, the Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic and District Hospital NHS Trust in Oswestry is most enthusiastic about the appeal: “We are extremely grateful to the County Air Ambulance Trust for agreeing to overhaul our landing and transfer facilities. It will be of great benefit to patients arriving by air ambulance and will enhance their comfort when they arrive with critical injuries. The covered transfer area, which will be adjacent to our hydrotherapy pool, will be useful for patients generally, protecting them from venturing outside in all weathers. This is fantastic news – thank you!”
Originally planned to support the West Midlands Ambulance Service when it pioneered helicopter emergency medical services in the early nineties, wide ranging fundraising for the air ambulance service by CAAT and other air ambulance charities has ensured, through money donated by individuals and local businesses, that the entire region once serviced by one helicopter now has the benefit of six air ambulances covering an area with a population of over eight million.
The sky is full of helicopters but unfortunately there are too few suitable places for them to land. Hospital building programmes, uncertainty within the NHS about the long term use of hospitals and a lack of cash has resulted in delay and deferral and a serious shortage of helipads. Only a small number of hospitals have helipads and a number of these require updating as facilities on the ground now seriously lag behind helicopter numbers.
Dr Anthony Bleetman, Consultant in Emergency Medicine at the Heart of England HNS Foundation Trust and Medical Advisor Helicopter Emergency Medicine for West Midlands Ambulance Service explains: “At Heartlands Hospital we have an elevated helideck which needs to be staffed by firefighters for every helicopter arrival. For the last five years, we have only been able to provide firefighters during office hours. The HELP appeal will raise vital funds to provide the additional staff that we need to ensure safe operation of the helideck at into the evening and at weekends. This will allow us to extend our provision of care to critically ill patients for all hours of operation of air ambulances in the region. We are very grateful to the Trust for helping us extend our facility for the benefit of critically ill or injured patients”.
The County Air Ambulance Trust will continue its partnership to provide financial support to air ambulance operators and will assume the major role in ensuring that patients can be taken to the right hospital by promoting the development of helipads at all key A & E and Specialist Centres throughout the region. In several cases where hospitals have no suitable surface areas within hospital grounds or within close proximity of the A&E admissions area, helipads such as that originally planned for the Birmingham Children’s Hospital, will have to be constructed upon roof top or elevated areas.
“As a wholly independent charity we are now taking the necessary steps to develop new helipads or upgrades to ensure patients are speedily and directly transferred to the care they need. We have already received enthusiastic support from the public towards the appeal and one thing remains unchanged and that is that we do not receive any help at all from government or lottery funds.” Tony Bateson concluded.
