Raising awareness of air ambulance’s vital work

The life-saving Lincs and Notts Air Ambulance. Photo: John Aron

So far this year , LNAA’s crews have responded to 1,162 missions, signalling that 2023 will be the busiest year on record.

At the same time last year, they were called to 1,074 emergencies, the year before 1,007 missions and three years ago 616.

Head of Operations Chris Bailey said: “The rise in missions that LNAA now respond to is twofold, firstly we have increased our ability to reach incidents and we now fly the air ambulance at night, the only Helicopter Emergency Medical Services (HEMS) unit in the region to do so. We have also increased the number of highly skilled and qualified doctors and paramedics we have on the LNAA team, and this year we will cover over 900 twelve-hour shifts”.

“Secondly, we have given our teams additional equipment and training to do more for the critically unwell patients they treat. We have provided our crews state of the art patient monitors, increased the amount of blood we can carry (and have so far transfused 90 units of blood products this year), and are constantly developing and using high end prehospital interventions such as invasive blood pressure monitoring. All this results in LNAA being able to reach more patients, both day and night, and ultimately we are able to save more lives”.

This increase in life-saving capabilities comes at a cost and with missions on the rise, the charity needs to raise £10m this year.

The crew is called to the most seriously ill and injured patients. Whether by air or by road, the doctor-paramedic team carry state-of-the-art equipment to perform a range of procedures, from anaesthetics to surgery – all at the scene of the incident.

To encourage people to find out more about LNAA’s work, the charity will take over roadside billboards and supermarket billboards and you can find their team of community fundraisers in Lincoln on September 6 and Asda supermarket in North Hykeham on September 7.

CEO Karen Jobling said: “You don’t have to be a member of the crew to help save lives and we are so thankful to the people who support us.”