9 Feb 2023
In December 2022, London’s Air Ambulance’s advanced trauma team – that always consists of a doctor and a paramedic – attended to 138 patients.
Each of these individuals had been critically injured and did not have time to get to hospital. We bring the emergency department to the roadside, 24/7, 365 days a year.
During this month, the most common mechanism of injury was penetrating trauma, which resulted in 44 patients (32 per cent). Falls from height resulted in 31 patients (23 per cent), road traffic collisions in 29 patients (21 per cent), other mechanisms 21 patients (15 per cent) and medical injury 13 (nine per cent).
Treating these patients at the scene involved administering 31 rapid sequence intubations, 27 ultrasounds, eight blood transfusions and two thoracotomies. Our crews are the only ones in London who can administer blood transfusions, induce comas and perform open heart surgery on the roadside.
Once the patient has been stabilised, our team often escort them to a nearby trauma centre. In December, The Royal London Hospital received 31 per cent of our patients, King’s College Hospital 26 per cent, St. Mary’s Hospital 22 per cent and St. George’s Hospital 16 per cent. Once during the month we flew a patient back to the helipad atop of The Royal London Hospital.
We cover the area of London within the M25 and reach any location within 11 minutes by air. This month, we attended incidents in Lambeth the most, with Southwark and Westminster the next two most commonly visited boroughs.
If you’re interested in how these statistics compare to other months, please read November’s monthly report, in which we attended 167 patients.
As a charity, we have recently launched our Up Against Time appeal as we need to replace both our helicopters by 2024 as they come to the end of their lifespan. This will cost an addition £15 million, on top of the £10 million a year it costs to run our life-saving service. Can you support us and help ensure we’re here for London?