Our impact | April 2024

Despite the lengthening daylight hours, a total of 27 missions took place at night, when our pilots need to use specialised night vision goggles. 

Swindon was the most visited, with 17 missions taking place in the area. Our critical care team attended 10 missions in Chippenham, Gloucestershire and Somerset. We were called to nine missions in the city of Bath.

We attended 54 missions with pre-hospital doctors on board, the most so far this year. Pre-hospital doctors help the team make advanced decisions on scene and administer alternative medications which critical care paramedics are unable to deliver.

We performed 24 patient transfers to various hospitals, with seven transfers to Royal United Hospital in Bath, seven to Southmead Hospital in Bristol and three to Salisbury District Hospital.

In terms of mission types, our crew were called to 23 cardiac emergencies, 22 were medical conditions and 19 road traffic collisions. We also attended 11 incidents involving children.

The crew are often called upon to perform surgical procedures, deliver blood transfusions and administer pre-hospital emergency anaesthesia at the scene of an incident. 

During April, our aircrew carried out four procedural sedations, five patients needed pre-hospital emergency anaesthesia, which is a vital yet high-risk intervention. It is used to gain rapid control of a patient’s physiology following serious traumatic or medical incidents.  

There were two patients who required blood transfusions on scene before being transferred to hospital. We carry two units of O Negative red blood cells, two units of O Positive red blood cells and four units of plasma on board our helicopter and critical care cars. 

Our aircrew supported six patients with advanced airway management, and on three occasions the team used the LUCAS machine to deliver CPR.