As national Air Ambulance Week gets underway, The Lincs & Notts Air Ambulance (LNAA) has recorded its busiest summer on record after expanding its life-saving service with a second helicopter along the east coast.
June became the charity’s busiest month on record with call-outs for both helicopters and Critical Care Cars totalling 151. But the crew were busier than ever in July and responded to 179 emergencies.
Clinical teams dedicated to the Lincs coast helped more than 90 patients between June and August. The most common call-out was for patients in cardiac arrest, followed closely by those involved in road traffic accidents. On some occasions both helicopters with full crew on board responded to the same incident involving multiple patients.
LNAA’s Medical Director Doctor Gareth Davies said: “We knew that the coastal area was vulnerable because of the distance to a major trauma centre by land.
“Our data also suggested increasing number of incidents in this area during summer months in previous years. This coupled with the emergence of more people taking holidays there this summer, meant we wanted to make sure we could be there for our communities.
“We feel relieved that at the time we recorded our busiest month ever we had the additional resources to get to patients quickly.
“We will be looking very hard at the data over the winter. Our focus will always be to give the best possible care to people across Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire.”
LNAA expanded its life-saving service with the second helicopter in anticipation of a surge of visitors to popular seaside hot-spots along the Lincolnshire coast as Covid restrictions eased and families took up more staycations this year.
The project began with a Critical Care Car and the second helicopter took over on June 21. The project ended on August 31.
Senior HEMS Paramedic Erica Ley said: “It’s been great to meet the communities out on the coast, people have asked lots of questions and let us know how valued the service is.
“We were first on scene on a number of occasions and worked closely with other emergency services. It’s been great to get to know colleagues in the police, fire & rescue and the RNLI in the coastal area.”
National Air Ambulance Week, from 6 to12 September, aims to raise awareness of the lifesaving work of air ambulance charities in delivering advanced pre-hospital care to people with a medical emergency when every second counts.
LNAA CEO Karen Jobling said: “We anticipated that this could have been a summer like no other and it was. Our crews helped many people and that was the sole aim but it’s been great to hear that our teams have also built new relationships with colleagues along the east coast and it’s a boost to all of us at the charity when we hear that the communities we serve are proud of what we do.”
To donate to Lincs & Notts Air Ambulance visit www.ambucopter.org.uk/donate/form
