29 Mar 2023
In the first month of 2023, London’s Air Ambulance’s advanced trauma team attended to 167 patients. Each of these individuals had been critically injured and did not have time to get to hospital.
Providing life-saving pre-hospital care at the roadside during this month included administering two thoracotomies, three femoral arterial lines, eight blood transfusions and 36 rapid sequence intubations. These intubations are placed once the patient has been induced into a coma – which is something only our crews can do on scene in London – and enables our team to protect and preserve a patient’s airway, ensuring maximum delivery of oxygen to lungs and brain.
Once our crew has stabilised a patient enough for transportation, they often accompany them to the nearest major trauma centre with London Ambulance Service paramedics. In January 2023, 41 per cent of these patients were taken to The Royal London Hospital, 23 per cent to St Mary’s, 18 per cent to St George’s and eight per cent to King’s College Hospital.
The most common mechanism of injury this month was assault, which resulted in 36 patients (24 per cent). Road traffic collisions and transport related injuries resulted in 34 patients (23 per cent), other mechanisms of injury 32 patients (22 per cent), accidents 24 patients (16 per cent) and falls 23 patients (15 per cent).
We cover the area of London within the M25 and reach any location within 11 minutes by air. Islington was the borough that we attended to the most this month, followed by Barnet, Croydon and Enfield.
If you’re interested in how these statistics compare to other months, please read December 2021’s monthly report, in which we attended 138 patients.
As a charity, we have recently launched our Up Against Time appeal to raise £15 million to replace both our helicopters by 2024. Can you support us and help ensure we continue to be there for London?