North West Air Ambulance

History

NWAA has existed since 1999. It was established with a single aircraft based at Blackpool Airport and has since upgraded to three Eurocopter EC135 aircraft: one based at Blackpool Airport and the other two at Manchester Barton Aerodrome.

The charity is not funded by the government (apart from grants) or by the NHS, instead it raises funds via its 11 charity shops, In the year ending March 2022, the charity raised £11.2million, including £66,000 from government grants. In the year ending March 2024, its revenue was £15.7million with no government grants. It spent £14.3M, of which £8.6M was used to provide the air ambulance service.

The charity covers an area of over 5500 sqmi and over 8million people. In 2022, an average call-out cost £3,500, with more specialised interventions costing more.

Fleet

Helicopters

The service uses three Eurocopter EC135 aircraft which have top speeds of over 150 mph, and fly during daylight hours 365 days a year. The helicopters do not attend HEMS missions at night. Due to the critical medical nature of HEMS missions, the NWAA fleet has special permissions from the Civil Aviation Authority to fly in worse weather conditions than other aircraft. In the winter months, a helicopter can fly to the scene of an incident towards the end of the day in daylight, but depart the scene or hospital after darkness has fallen to return to base. The NWAA helicopter fleet include:

• G-NWAA (built 2005) − based at Blackpool Airport and uses air traffic control call sign Helimed 08. This aircraft generally covers the Northern counties of Lancashire and Cumbria.
• G-NWEM (built 2003) and generally covers the southern counties of Cheshire, Greater Manchester and Merseyside.
• G-NWAE (built 2003) − based at Barton, uses call sign Helimed 75.

Although the aircraft have their allocated counties, they will often cross into each other's areas should operational needs require it. The average response time is 10 minutes from take-off to landing at the scene of an accident. Most areas in North West can be reached within 25 minutes.

Cars

As the helicopters can only fly in daylight, in February 2018, a £65,000 BMW X5 (X5 Xdrive25d Se Auto) road vehicle was added to the fleet. This has been given the name "Air Ambulance Response Unit" (or 'RU' for short). As a rapid response vehicle, it enables doctors and paramedics to carry out some of their work during the hours of darkness (6pm–2am), poor weather or when an aircraft requires maintenance.

In 2019–20, researchers from Lancaster University Management School constructed and validated a predictive simulation model to consider the prospective performance of a single air ambulance vs. a single rapid response vehicle during the hours of darkness. Subsequent trials validated the study findings. In April 2022, another BMW (X5 Xdrive30d Xline Auto) SUV was donated by Beaverbrooks to become a Critical Care Vehicle, and in November 2022, a BMW 530D Xdrive Se Mhev Auto (Electric Diesel) has been added and became the "night car", while the 2018 X5, being less stable at high speed (95mph), has since been used for fundraising events.

Operations

Medical interventions

The medical interventions provided at the scene are of a hospital standard, and were historically only done in critical care settings, including blood transfusion, and chest surgery to make the critically injured patient stable enough to be transported to hospital. They have provided interventions such as thoracostomy (chest incission to remove excess fluid or air) and ultrasound to check for internal bleeding.

Crew

The 48-strong team of critical care paramedics who provide the patient care for incidents attended by NWAA are provided on two year secondments by the North West Ambulance Service. The medics are extensively trained in areas such as helicopter safety, navigation and aviation law as well as advanced medical procedures beyond those performed by their land based colleagues. In addition to the paramedics, on one helicopter from Manchester Barton base (Helimed 72) there is a pre-hospital emergency medicine trained doctor.

The pilots, along with the helicopters themselves are provided by emergency helicopter specialist Babcock Mission Critical Services Onshore.

Blood

All three aircraft carry blood on board for life-saving blood transfers at the scene of an accident. The blood is delivered to the helicopter bases at Barton and Blackpool on motorbikes by another charity, Greater Manchester Blood Bikes. NWAA is one of ten charities taking part in a two-year trial (starting 15 December 2022) of carrying whole blood (group O Rh negative − compatible with anyone) instead of red blood cells which were carried by UK Air Ambulances since 2012. The advantage lies in the blood containing platelets which help blood to clot.

Helicopter dispatch

Control of the aircraft was initially the responsibility of the emergency medical dispatchers working in local North West Ambulance Service control rooms. However, in February 2008, a central Air Desk at Ambulance Control in Broughton, Preston was introduced which prioritised requests for the air ambulance in an attempt to increase efficiency.

References

References

1. "Our Team". North West Air Ambulance.
2. "North West Air Ambulance". Charity Commission.
3. Robinson, Claire. (September 2019). "Air Ambulance Operations Manual". Haynes Publishing.
4. "About us". North West Air Ambulance.
5. (15 October 2022). "Ex-Hollyoaks actor's Peru trek challenge for air ambulance". BBC.
6. "Ways to give". North West Air Ambulance.
7. "Charity Overview: North West Air Ambulance". [[Charity Commission for England and Wales]].
8. McDonough, Tony. "Critical service that has to raise £9.5m every year". Liverpool Business News.
9. "Our Fleet". North West Air Ambulance.
10. "Search the G-INFO aircraft register". Civil Aviation Authority.
11. "About Us". North West Air Ambulance.
12. (1 February 2018). "Air Ambulance charity now has wheels".
13. (8 November 2022). "NWAA Night Car". North West Air Ambulance.
14. (24 February 2018). "Say hello to Ru!". North West Air Ambulance.
15. (21 July 2020). "Lancaster University Management School uses predictive simulation to investigate healthcare provisions for air ambulance operations". Lanner.
16. (6 April 2022). "Beaverbrooks donate Critical Care Vehicle". North West Air Ambulance.
17. Newton, Susan. (8 August 2023). "Teen placed in coma after being thrown from horse and trampled on after first day of new school". Lancs Live.
18. "NWAA Annual Report 2023". North West Air Ambulance.
19. Carter, Gemma. (29 August 2023). "North West Air Ambulance Charity launches campaign to extend lifesaving service". Saddleworth Independent.
20. (16 February 2024). ""I was not very far from death - but I was saved at the roadside"". Manchester Evening News.
21. "Our crew". North West Air Ambulance.
22. (12 February 2019). "Air Ambulance UK - Helicopter Operational Characteristics 2019". Association of Air Ambulances.
23. (7 September 2022). "Preston dad suffers 60% blood loss in chainsaw accident". BBC.
24. "Who we work with". North West Air Ambulance.
25. (7 March 2012). "Air ambulance first in UK to carry blood". BBC.
26. (14 December 2022). "Air Ambulances begin trial transfusing ‘whole blood’ to potentially improve civilian and military trauma care". NHS Blood and Transplant.
27. (17 June 2010). "How is the air ambulance tasked to missions". North West Air Ambulance.