Local air ambulance charity announces record number of jobs for 2018

Great Western Air Ambulance Charity (GWAAC) has announced that they attended a record number of incidents in 2018, making it their busiest year to date.

The service, which is entirely charity funded, attended to 1,887 incidents last year across the counties of Bristol, Bath and North East Somerset, South Gloucestershire, Gloucestershire, North Somerset and surrounding areas.

The charity provides the critical care and Ambulance service to 2.1 million people with a team of highly skilled Critical Care Doctors and Specialist Paramedics in Critical Care, who are able to carry out life-saving interventions from blood transfusions to treating cardiac arrests, at the scene of an incident. The crew attend the most critical incidents across the region by helicopter or by one of two critical care cars, attending on average 5 incidents a day.

Over 65% of missions in 2018 were carried out in one of GWAAC’s critical care cars. If an incident happens within a short distance of the air base, it’s quicker and more cost effective to attend in one of the cars, and as the helicopter can only fly during daylight hours, the cars are critical to incidents that happen at night time.

Chief Executive Anna Perry says: “As these numbers show, there is increasing demand for our vital service each year. 2018 was a very busy year for GWAAC and our crew. Alongside our day to day operations, we also successfully purchased and moved into our new air base in Almondsbury thanks to everyone’s generous donations and support. This move has not only provided much-needed stability but has enabled our crew to work in a suitable environment, meaning we can continue to provide this life-saving service.”

GWAAC recently moved into a new purpose-built air base in Almondsbury, having launched a campaign to Buy Our Base, raising over £1.3 million pounds to secure the future of the service.

The charity needs to raise over £3 million each year to stay operational, but receive no day to day funding from the Government or National Lottery, relying on the generosity of donors and supporters to keep them running.

To find out more on the Great Western Air Ambulance Charity, visit www.gwaac.com

ENDS