The Great Western Air Ambulance Charity has revealed that 2021 was its second-busiest year on record, with nearly two thousand call-outs.
Photo courtesy of the Great Western Air Ambulance Charity
The charity’s Critical Care Team received a total of 1,964 call-outs to incidents across the region, which includes Bath and North East Somerset, Bristol, South Gloucestershire, Gloucestershire, North Somerset, and parts of Wiltshire.
The most significant increase in incidents was to children and teenagers in urgent need of medical care.
In 2021, 14% of the Great Western Air Ambulance Charity’s (GWAAC) total call-outs were to children and teenagers. Dispatches to this age group doubled from preceding years.
Of the total missions to Bath and North East Somerset, 17% were to a child or teenager.
Alfie needed GWAAC when he was three years old. His Mum, Becky, said: “If it wasn’t for this fabulous team, Alfie would not be with us today.”
The air ambulance and critical care service, which is charity funded, provides emergency medical care to the most seriously ill or injured in the region.
GWAAC’s crew of Critical Care Doctors, Advanced Practitioners and Specialist Paramedics bring the expertise of a hospital emergency department to the scene of an incident.
From roadside blood transfusions to performing emergency surgery to anaesthesia, the crew is specially trained to deliver pre-hospital emergency care to both children and adults.
The Critical Care Team responded to 111 people in urgent need across Bath and the surrounding area in 2021, which is a call to someone in urgent need more than twice a week on average.
More than two-thirds of GWAAC’s call-outs to B&NES in 2021 were in response to trauma-related incidents. At 64%, the district had the highest rate of trauma incidents in GWAAC’s entire region; the average rate was 55%.
GWAAC attends more cardiac arrests than any other life-threatening emergency. In 2021, the crew responded to 25 people suffering a cardiac arrest in the Bath area.
Road traffic collisions were the second-highest reason the crew was called here, with 23 instances in 2021.
The increasing demand for GWAAC’s service means the charity needs to raise over £4 million a year to remain operational, yet it receives no day-to-day funding from the Government or National Lottery, relying on the generosity and support from local communities.
Anna Perry, CEO of the Great Western Air Ambulance Charity, said: “Having experienced our second busiest year on record and with higher than average call-outs to children, I feel very proud of the crew.
“They have once again shown resilience and courage, and continue to put themselves on the frontline whilst making patients the heart of everything they do.”
