8 May 2024
In March 2024, London’s Air Ambulance’s advanced trauma team – who are dispatched to London’s most critically injured when there is no time to get to hospital – attended to 170 patients.
This is 10 more individuals than the previous month: if you’d like to further compare the statistics, you can read February’s report here.
Assault was the mechanism of injury that resulted in the highest number of patients in March: 39 patients (23 per cent). Falls and transport-related injuries both resulted in 25 patients (15 per cent each), medical-related injuries 23 (14 per cent) and accidents 11 (six per cent). Forty-seven patients had unknown or other mechanisms of injury (28 per cent).
Our crew bring life-saving procedures that are usually found in the emergency department to the scene of the injury. Attending to these patients in March involved administering 37 rapid sequence intubations, 20 blood transfusions, 16 femoral arterial lines and two thoracotomies (open chest surgery). We are the only ones who can do some of these procedures on scene in London.
The borough most visited during this month was Newham, with Ealing and Tower Hamlets the second most visited. After we have stabilised the patient on scene, we usually accompany them to the nearest major trauma centre (of which there are four in London) in a London Ambulance Service road ambulance. In March, 49 of our patients were taken to The Royal London Hospital (42 per cent), 36 patients were taken to St Mary’s Hospital (31 per cent) and 15 were taken to both King’s College Hospital and St George’s Hospital (13 per cent each).
We are here for the people of London every day, with our service operational 24/7. But we are a charity and we are running out of time to replace our two helicopters. We have five months left to reach our target of £15 million – can you support our Up Against Time appeal today, before it’s too late?