10 Jul 2023
In May 2023, London’s Air Ambulance’s advanced trauma team attended to 166 patients.
We’re dispatched to London’s most critically injured – people who don’t have time to make it to hospital. We bring the emergency department to the roadside and are the only ones in London who can perform open heart surgery, administer blood transfusions and induce patients into comas on scene.
During this month, providing life-saving pre-hospital care included performing 24 rapid sequence intubations, 22 blood transfusions, five femoral arterial lines and six thoracotomies. Assault was the most common mechanism of injury, resulting in 51 of May’s patients (31 per cent).
Transport-related injuries resulted in 29 patients (17 per cent), falls 22 patients (13 per cent), accidents 17 (10 per cent) and medical injuries 12 (seven per cent). There were also 35 patients (21 per cent) whose mechanism of injury was other or unknown.
We serve the area within the M25 and can reach anywhere in this proximity within 11 minutes. Southwark was the most attended to borough this month, with Lambeth and Westminster both the second most visited. Once we have stabilised the patient, they are usually taken to hospital in a road ambulance. In May, 38 of our patients (33 per cent) were taken to The Royal London Hospital, 32 (28 per cent) to St Mary’s Hospital, 26 (22 per cent) to King’s College Hospital and 15 (13 per cent) to St George’s Hospital. We also flew two patients back to The Royal London Hospital: a rare occurrence.
If you’re interested in how these statistics compare to the previous month, you can read April’s mission report here.
We are here for the 10 million who visit, live and work in London, 365 days a year. But we are a charity, and we are reliant on the public’s support. We need to raise £15 million by 2024 to replace our aging helicopters – can you help us fund our new fleet?