The Flyer
East Anglian Air Ambulance
launch momentous campaign
to become a 24/7 service
East Anglian Air Ambulance (EAAA)
has launched their ambitious plans to
become a 24/7 helicopter emergency
medical service (HEMS) provider by
2020. The charity currently operate
365-days-a-year but not 24-hours-
a-day, meaning that if an incident
happened between midnight and
07:00 there is currently no HEMS
provision in the region. The charity is
aiming to cover this gap and become a
full 24/7 HEMS service by 2020. To do
that they need to raise an additional
£1 million a year to fund the operation.
The type of incidents the charity
attend – serious road traffi c collisions,
cardiac arrests, traumatic injuries and
other medical emergencies, do not
stop when their crew go offl ine. While
a 24/7 service seemed to make sense,
the charity needed to be sure, so have
been gathering evidence to prove it.
They worked with the East of England
Ambulance Service Trust (EEAST), who
task them, to review incidents over
the course of a year where critical care
was required but unavailable. They also
assessed the need fi rst-hand by trialling
an overnight service via rapid response
vehicle (RRV) four days a week from the
Norwich base. The results of this work
confi rmed a signifi cant region-wide need
for overnight critical care, particularly in
rural Norfolk. In the fi rst twelve months
of the overnight trial they attended
220 missions, but they say that with
the helicopter they could do so much
more.
Matthew Jones, Director of Operations
at EAAA, said; “Becoming a 24/7
service by air will provide the people
of East Anglia with a service that
has not previously been available. By
operating 24/7 we believe that we
will treat approximately 600 more
patients every year. Patient care is
at the heart of everything we do at
EAAA, so if we can treat 600 more
people each year and further reduce
the impact of trauma and medical
emergencies in the community then
this is a great step forwards for us. We
currently need to raise £12M a year
to operate our service, and it will cost
an additional £1m a year to fund a full
24/7 operation.”
The charity say they are already
incredibly grateful to the community
for all their support, but are asking
for help to raise the additional £1m a
year needed to operate 24/7 so they
can save more lives. If you would like
to fi nd out more about the campaign
or to donate please visit www.
mission247.co.uk. You can also follow
them on Facebook as ‘East Anglian
Air Ambulance’ and on Twitter as @
EastAngliAirAmb.
P le a s e m e n t i o n ‘ T h e F l yer ’ wh en r esp o n d in g t o ad ver t isements
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