24 Mar 2026
In 2025, our expert team of doctors and paramedics treated 2,031 patients across London: treating a patient on average every four hours.
This shows patient numbers remaining near 2024’s record high and demonstrates how the need for the service has increased by nearly a fifth since 2021, with the number of missions growing by roughly four per cent every year.
Dr Anne Weaver, Medical Director, London’s Air Ambulance Charity, said: “These statistics reflect our experience on the ground. Our services have expanded over the years to meet demand and we release this data every year to demonstrate why our service is so needed. But numbers are only ever part of the story.
“Behind every figure released today is a patient, someone whose life has been changed beyond recognition in an instant. As clinicians, it is our job to provide the best possible outcomes for them and their families. That is what motivates our teams to continue to innovate in pre-hospital care.”
Treating these patients on scene, as they’re so critically injured they don’t have time to get to hospital, involved performing complex medical treatments at the roadside. Throughout 2025, our team performed 360 rapid sequence intubations, 290 arterial lines, 236 blood transfusions, 24 thoracotomies (open chest surgery), one case of REBOA and more potentially life-saving interventions. These figures represent a year-on-year increase in blood transfusions and rapid sequence intubations – you can read 2024’s annual report here for further comparisons.
Our team serves all of London and can reach anywhere within the M25 in under 11 minutes. Westminster was the most attended borough during 2025, followed by Tower Hamlets, Newham and then Lambeth. For a full breakdown of how many times we attended each borough, you can see our mission map here.
Once we have stabilised the patient on scene, we usually accompany them to the nearest major trauma centre in a road ambulance. This year, 614 (41.6 per cent) patients were taken to The Royal London Hospital, 411 (27.8 per cent) to St Mary’s Hospital, 250 (16.9 per cent) to King’s College and 161 (10.9 per cent) to St George’s.
We only flew eight patients back throughout the entire year – flying patients to hospital isn’t our main role on scene, instead we bring the hospital to the patient, carrying almost every intervention you can find in the emergency department of a hospital to the roadside.
Assault was the most common mechanism of injury, resulting in 512 patients (25 per cent). Transport-related injuries resulted in 337 patients (17 per cent), falls 317 (16 per cent), medical-related injuries 272 (13 per cent) and accidents 189 (nine per cent). There were also 404 patients that suffered other or unknown injuries (20 per cent), which include burns and industrial accidents.
In May 2025, we launched our ECAT team, bringing hope to the roadside for patients in cardiac arrest. Throughout the year they were dispatched 46 times and performed the innovative ECMO procedure five times.
We are here for London, 24/7, 365 days a year. But we are a charity, with 95 per cent of our funding reliant on public support. With the service costing approximately £14 million a year to run, we can’t bring hope to every emergency without you. Can you donate today, so we can be there for the patient tomorrow?