Air ambulance records one of its busiest years in two decades

The Derbyshire, Leicestershire & Rutland Air Ambulance (DLRAA) along with Warwickshire & Northamptonshire Air Ambulance (WNAA) were deployed to 3,803 call-outs via helicopter and Critical Care Car – 684 more than in 2022 - with DLRAA responding to 2,194 of the callouts and WNAA 1,609.

The highest number of callouts were to Leicestershire and Rutland with 849, Derbyshire had 709 callouts, Northamptonshire 466 and Warwickshire had 453.

A further 433 incidents were responded to across the West Midlands, 635 across Nottinghamshire, 98 across Lincolnshire, and many more split across other neighbouring counties.

Similar to last year, the highest number of callouts were to medical incidents at 35 per cent, followed by road traffic collisions at 26 per cent, with the ‘other’ category – consisting of assaults, self-harm, and mental health incidents – accounting for 24 per cent of missions, falls 10 per cent, sports three per cent and industrial two per cent.

“Despite continued economic difficulties everyone has faced over the last few years, the generous support from our local communities has meant our dedicated crews could continue attending lifesaving missions in 2023 – our second busiest year since we began in 2003,” said Head of Operations for the charity, Philip Bridle.

“We attended our 50,000th mission in 2023 and we continued to enhance our 24/7 services by bringing on new Critical Care Cars, introducing equipment to deliver critical care medicines and assist with surgical procedures, and continued to roll-out our training for critical care paramedics surrounding ultrasound - amongst many other things.

“We have plans to further improve our services this year through clinical developments and research studies and projects to ensure we continue to help lead the way in pre-hospital emergency medicine and patient care,” added Philip.

The lifesaving charity welcomed a new CEO, Peta Wilkinson in 2023 as it celebrated WNAA’s 20th anniversary and DLRAA’s 15th anniversary plus an overall ‘Outstanding’ CQC rating.

As every year, the vital service will again be there – 365 days a year – for those in their hour of need and needs the continued support of its dedicated supporters to raise the £2,300 needed for every mission.