21 Aug 2019
We are delighted to announce a funding boost of almost £2 million towards our helipad base at The Royal London Hospital, helping our team of flying medics deliver their world-class care across London.
The HELP Appeal, a charity dedicated to funding hospital and air ambulance helipads, has kindly donated £250,000 to our charity and Barts Health NHS Trust will receive £1.4 million from the Department for Health and Social Care. This money will go towards a much-needed redevelopment of our helipad base, which is kindly provided to us by Barts Health NHS, and will help support our advanced trauma team.
We launched our fundraising appeal ‘Saving Time Saving Lives’ at the start of 2019, marking our 30th anniversary campaign, of which HRH The Duke of Cambridge is a Patron.
The Saving Time Saving Lives appeal aimed to raise at least £1 million to redevelop the crew’s helipad base to enable the medics to respond even faster, improve training and make sure crews have the facilities they need for their mental health and wellbeing.
Robert Bertram, Chief Executive of the HELP Appeal, said: “After visiting London’s Air Ambulance’s helipad base, it was clear that improvements were urgently needed to provide far better and more suitable facilities for the doctors, paramedics and pilots who are involved in highly stressful situations on a daily basis. We are proud that we are able to help them create a state-of-the-art facility that will also enable crews to reach critically ill patients even more quickly, helping to save more lives.”
The money will go towards providing a ready crew room placed closer to the aircraft for faster dispatch; a space for crews to find respite, deliver peer-to-peer support and debrief critical missions; education and training facilities; rest accommodation for frontline staff; and new storage space to accommodate additional medical and major incident response equipment.
Dr Gareth Grier, Consultant in Emergency Medicine and Pre-hospital care at Barts Health NHS Trust and with London’s Air Ambulance, said: “We are most grateful for the generous support that will help us improve our facilities, and equipment at London's Air Ambulance. We spend a great deal of time training to specifically help deal with the most critically injured patients in London. The additional facilities and bespoke space will allow us to do even more for our patients. We are passionate about bringing the best treatments available anywhere in the world to the people of London when they suffer their biggest ever challenge and this kind donation is extremely welcome. Thank you.
Louise Robertshaw, Director of Fundraising and Marketing at London’s Air Ambulance Charity, said: “We had an ambitious target to raise £1million during our 30th anniversary, and are delighted that the generous support from the HELP Appeal and the DHSC has meant we have almost doubled the amount we can use for redevelopment of our operational space. The money will enable our teams to continue to provide world-class rapid response care, every second of every day, and help find the next clinical developments to create the next generation of survivors.”
