Leicestershire most visited county in midlands by air ambulance last year

New figures show there were 732 potential life-saving missions in the two counties for the Derbyshire, Leicestershire and Rutland Air Ambulance, (DLRAA) and the Warwickshire and Northamptonshire Air Ambulance (WNAA).

And Leicestershire was the most visited county in the midlands in 2022 by the distinctive yellow helicopters, which are paid for by fundraising and donations plus takings at the charity’s shops, including The Hanger superstore at Melton Mowbray.

The highest number of callouts were to medical incidents at 34 per cent, then road traffic collisions at 27 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.

Head of operations for the charity, Philip Bridle, said: “Despite the economic difficulties everyone has faced over the last year, the generous support from our local communities has meant our dedicated crews, who respond to emergencies on average, 10 times a day, could continue attending lifesaving missions across Leicestershire, Rutland and further afield.

“Our 24/7 frontline services were enhanced in 2022 as we made clinical developments through bringing blood products onboard and training our critical care paramedics in the use of ultrasound equipment.

“We have plans to further develop in 2023 by bringing new Critical Care Cars online as well as introducing new medical equipment such as ventilators and cardiac monitors, amongst other things, as we head towards our 50,000-mission milestone this year.”

Crews were tasked to 3,119 missions via helicopter and critical care car, with DLRAA responding to 1,708 of the callouts and WNAA responding to 1,411.

The highest number of callouts were to Leicestershire and Rutland with 732, Derbyshire had 558 callouts, Northamptonshire 405 and Warwickshire had 386.

A further 397 incidents were responded to across the West Midlands, 472 across Nottinghamshire, 81 across Lincolnshire, and many more split across other neighbouring counties.

This year marks DLRAA’s 15th anniversary and WNAA’s 20th anniversary of vital missions.

Click HERE to donate and support the air ambulance or to find out more.