The yellow ambulance helicopter is now a familiar sight over the village. At our June meeting enthusiastic volunteers Joan and Gill Smith from the East Anglian Air Ambulance Trust gave us a fascinating insight into the history and workings of the service.
Emergency helicopter services first operated in Cornwall in 1987. The East Anglian service arose in 2000 with a Trust Fund initiated by Frankie Dettori after surviving a plane crash on take-off at Newmarket, with the AA assisting financially.
The EAAA now has two helicopters, one in Norwich and the other in Cambridge. A doctor is on 96% of call-outs, assisted by a critical care paramedic who also assists the pilot in landings. They are able to carry out emergency procedures on site and then determine the mode of transport most appropriate hospital for the patient.
Two aircraft are leased from Bond Air Services flown by pilots mostly from a military background. These are the first machines approved by the CAA for night-time operation and are on call 20 hours a day. Since May 2013 night vision goggles made this possible and aircraft are also equipped with power-line detectors and powerful 800 watt Trakka searchlights. A further Eurocopter 145 will join the fleet later this year.
The service covers a population of three million, overlapping with the Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire service, and occasionally reaching outer London. In 2013 the aircraft were called out on 1,670 occasions, 5467 of which were to road traffic collisions, 319 to cardiac emergencies, and 38 equestrian accidents among the varied remainder. This equates to 4,5 call-outs a day.
£200,000 per month is required to finance the operations, with an average mission costing £2,200. Two rapid response road vehicles with a doctor and paramedic are also available should bad weather prevent flying. No government or national lottery funding is available therefore constant fund-raising efforts are needed to raise the annual cost of £7.6 million. Legacies are an important element, together with their own dedicated weekly lottery. It is reassuring to know that this vital service is available and to assure its future survival.
Ray Jones