Air ambulance workers fear critically ill patients are not getting to the hospital on time during the NHS crisis.

Air ambulance workers fear that patients with life-threatening injuries are not getting to the hospital on time as the NHS is in an “absolute crisis”.

earlier this month, I spent a shift with the East Anglia Ambulance Service (EAAA), which has crews in Cambridge and Norwich.

“A typical ER team might see a severely injured patient once or twice a year,” says ICU paramedic Andy Downes. But increasingly, he said, “We see them on most shifts, if not at least once or twice a week.”

It’s not just the EAAA that has noticed the changes over the past two years. Daryl Brown, chief executive of Magpas Air Ambulance, which covers Cambridgeshire, Bedfordshire and the east of England, said the ambulance service is “filling in the gaps in NHS care”.

Air ambulances cannot replace ambulances, but helicopters are increasingly “first to the scene” and “the types of patients we go to are getting wider,” he said.

Asked about patients with life-threatening injuries who can’t get to the hospital on time, Mr Brown replied: I: “Yes, this is my personal opinion. I think we’re starting to see results of treatment and patient death that we didn’t expect two years ago. It’s the National Health Service, which is in absolute crisis right now.”

A record number of people waited more than 12 hours in emergency rooms last month, and ambulances queued outside hospitals all night, meaning they were unable to respond to new calls.

Nurses and emergency workers are at the center of a bitter dispute with the government over wages and working conditions, with a series of strikes set to continue next month.

Air Ambulances are charities founded alongside the NHS system, which means they were not directly affected by the strikes and were able to care for critically ill patients during the strike.

Chris Bailey, head of the Lincs and Notts Air Ambulance (LNAA), based at RAF Waddington, said the local service was on duty 24 hours a day during the ambulance strike and provided an additional vehicle-based intensive care team for first aid. strike day. The LNAA aims to offer “the same added service for future planned strikes in our region,” he added.

Air ambulances provide an extra layer of care for critically ill patients in the event of a medical emergency, including cardiac arrest, severe asthma attacks or allergic reactions, and injuries from traffic accidents or falls. According to Matthew Jones, CEO of the EAAA, more and more teams are being sent to see injured patients.

He said patients being transported by an ambulance usually “skip lines at hospitals” because they are often so seriously ill that they are rushed through emergency rooms to the operating room.

The Air Ambulances operate as charities, meaning they must collect millions of pounds from the public each year.

This means organizations can buy state-of-the-art equipment and offer round-the-clock service without having to “fight teeth and claws for funding,” Jones said, but it leaves them vulnerable to the economic climate.

“Our ability to respond to these medical emergencies and support the NHS during this crisis is entirely dependent on community donations, which is a major challenge at a time of the greatest pressure on the cost of living,” said Mr Brown of Magpas Air Ambulance.

“We can only accept more patients if we have the money to do so,” he said. I. “But at the moment it is very difficult to raise money, and we do not have large reserves to rely on.

“When the economic climate gets worse and people can’t support local charity air ambulance services, this whole level of help is completely dependent on donations. it is not funded by the state. So that’s a real danger.”

Mr Bailey of the LNAA added that running out of funding “is a growing risk that we see as a charity.”

For Magpas, last year was “one of the busiest years on record,” Brown said, with more patients in 2022 than in the previous four years.

The service is being called due to “more serious medical incidents than ever before”, with more patients suffering from complex illnesses as NHS treatment was delayed, and younger patients.

With increased pressure from the NHS, ambulance crews are increasingly becoming “the first medical resource at the scene of an accident, which is rare given the severely injured and ill majority of our patients,” according to Mr Brown.

As a result, Magpas Air Ambulance has deployed additional vehicle-based rapid response teams across the region, with one scheduled in Peterborough and another in Luton. This means paramedics can drive up to critically ill patients to provide life-saving care before an ambulance arrives to take them to the hospital.

“We see the patient with a serious injury the most shifts”

When I Upon arrival at the East Anglia Ambulance Airfield, which has two bases in Norwich and Cambridge, the crew was already preparing for takeoff as they were called on their second mission of the day.

“A typical ambulance team can see a severely injured patient once or twice a year. We see them on most shifts, if not at least once or twice a week,” said ICU paramedic Andy Downes. I.

By noon, the crew had already been sent to two cardiac arrests starting at 7 am, and so had just started eating their “breakfast”.

“It’s not an easy job. Sometimes it takes a lot of physical and mental effort,” said Mr. Downs, who has been with the EAAA for 13 years.

“We never know exactly where we will end up. This morning we climbed the sand dunes in the dark. And next time we’ll land in the field next to the patient.”

He said his 12-hour shift “in theory” should end at 7:00 pm, but if he works, it could be much longer.

Kieran Smith is normally an EMT in Scotland but is seconded to the EAAA for a year.

“It gives me a good idea of ​​how the rescue service works,” he says, recalling his previous experience. “And all the different issues that you don’t really appreciate when you’re in your nice, warm hospital with the lights on and everything.”

For Mr. Downes, the job can “take a toll” both mentally and physically, but he feels good in a “fantastic team environment.”

“We see people on the worst day of their lives. And sometimes they are on the verge of survival or death,” he said, adding that the most memorable patients are those who return to visit.

“A few years ago, I had a patient who suffered a serious head injury after a fall,” he said. “We gave her a sedative and took her to a major trauma center for neurosurgery,” thought [survival was] extremely unlikely.

“A few months later they knocked on the door to say hello. They bounced back. It’s these unexpected saves that are worth it.”

EAAA chief Jones said that until 2022 the helicopter would arrive before the ground ambulance as the East Anglia Ambulance Service had 387 vehicles compared to three helicopters covering the same area.

“Sometimes an ambulance doesn’t come to our scene, which usually doesn’t happen,” Jones said. I.

Crews fear some patients may run out of funds to transport them to the hospital as the system becomes increasingly overwhelmed and air ambulances deal with incidents in first responders without the aid of an ambulance.

The car is equipped with advanced pre-hospital medical facilities, but can still be left with “a patient who is unwell and who really should be in the hospital.”

“The crew can provide advanced assistance, but if they don’t have transport, it’s a really dangerous situation,” he said, adding: “It hasn’t happened yet, but we’re afraid of it.”

Each air ambulance service is an independent charity that operates a little differently, meaning specialized services can be tailored to the needs of patients in each area.

There are 21 air ambulances and 37 helicopters in the UK, averaging more than 100 calls a day, according to Air Ambulances UK.

Responding to comments that ambulances are increasingly being the first to arrive on the scene, a spokesman for the Department of Health and Human Services said: “That’s not a fair comparison. Air ambulances can travel at much faster speeds than road ambulances and don’t have to deal with inevitable problems like traffic.”

They added: “We acknowledge the pressure our emergency services are facing and have announced additional funding of up to £250 million to help immediately. Reducing hospital bed occupancy, reducing pressure on emergency departments and facilitating much-needed ambulance transfers, on top of a £500m severance fund announced last year.

“The National Health Service (NHS) will be drawing up detailed emergency and emergency recovery plans in the coming weeks, including plans to reduce Category 2 ambulance arrival times to 30 minutes and reduce emergency waiting times.”