Welsh Ambulance Service reaches 50,000 missions

Last month the Welsh Ambulance Service – a Charity – attended its 50,000th mission. Above: Welsh Ambulance Service Chief Executive, Dr Sue Barnes.Courtesy Welsh Ambulance Service

Wales Air Ambulance covers the entire country of Wales every single day. Since its inception in March 2001, the Charity has responded to more than 50,000 missions and now attends over 3,500 every year. It has evolved since its launch into the highly specialised critical care response service we see operate today, taking the hospital to the patient, attending those who have life or limb-threatening injuries.

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The highly skilled consultants and critical care practitioners travel the length and breadth of the country to deliver emergency lifesaving care by helicopter or rapid response vehicle, taking the hospital directly to the patient. Dr Sue Barnes, Chief Executive of the Welsh Ambulance Service said: “We mark this milestone with huge gratitude – we are truly humbled. This would not have been possible without the continued support and dedication of our supporters, volunteers, employees, medics, pilots and engineers – past and present.

“Behind each mission, there are human stories. On 50,000 occasions, the medics on board our vehicles have been tasked to help someone in need. When past patients and their families visit us, they often bring their family and friends – sometimes their young children.

At that point, you realise that the impact of our charity is far greater than just the patient themselves. We have also impacted the lives of their family and friends who, without our service, may never have been reunited with their loved ones. “We are also immensely grateful to those individuals and organisations we work alongside in the chain of emergency care.

This includes the Welsh Ambulance Service and Welsh health boards, as well as fellow emergency services across the country.” Using an Airbus H145 helicopter powered by two Safran Arriel 2E turbo shaft jet engines, the Wales Air Ambulance Charity needs to raise GBP11.2 million each year to continue saving lives across Wales. Advertisement

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The maximum operating altitude of the H145 is 20,000ft, this is the same as six and a half times the height of Pen Y Fan.

However, to operate at this height would require onboard oxygen, so they operate at 10,000 ft. Their aircraft configuration enables six people to fly inside the helicopter. Operationally the H145 flies around 120 kts (nautical miles per hour) or 138 statute miles per hour, twice the legal motorway speed limit.

It would take just over an hour to travel from the most northerly point in Wales on Anglesey to the most southerly point in Wales near Cardiff. The H145 incorporates an advanced autopilot system to reduce pilot workload.

The autopilot is integrated with a number of aircraft envelope protections to prevent the overstressing of the airframe and low height protections amongst other features. The tail rotor of the H145 is an enclosed tail rotor known as a Fenestron, a design now owned by Airbus helicopters. The word Fenestron is derived from the Latin word fenestra – which means window, very similar to the Welsh word for window ‘ffenestr’.

Pilots are not medics contrary to many people’s belief. The Charity’s fleet of Rapid Response Vehicles are equipped with the same state-of-the-art equipment as the helicopters and the medical crews are dispatched across Wales by a team at the EMRTS Critical Care Hub, based at the Welsh Ambulance Service Clinical Contact Centre in Cwmbran. Twenty-four hours a day, there is a Critical Care Dispatcher and a Critical Care Practitioner monitoring every 999 call, identifying which patients require critical care interventions.