New Magpas helicopter flies into action to help patients across region
One week in flying with the new Magpas Air Ambulance and the charity’s medical team have already seen some outstanding benefits for patient care; airlifting the same number of patients in seven days as they did during the whole of the month of March.
This time two years ago, the charity had just begun an intensive research process into the procurement of a new Magpas air ambulance for the region.
As a result, the Augusta Westland 169 (AW169) helicopter was selected as the best aircraft for the job. At the time, Magpas medical director Dr Simon Lewis explained:“This new aircraft will provide us with the most technologically advanced features and more space for medical equipment, better enabling the Magpas enhanced medical teams to respond to our patients in their moment of need.”
Last Friday (May 10) the AW169 helicopter officially became the new Magpas Air Ambulance and very quickly the results started to speak for themselves.
During the first 12 hour shift, the Magpas doctor and paramedic team were called out three times by air. Critical care paramedic, Steve Chambers, was part of the operational team on the very first shift.
He explained, “The benefits are already clear. This is much faster than our older aircraft and it has more space in the cabin for us and of course for our patients.”
Thursday (16) marked the last shift of the week, with the Magpas team having been activated to 16 serious medical emergencies by air (and 10 by rapid response vehicle) in total.
Via helicopter alone, they were called to incidents across Cambridgeshire, Peterborough, Norfolk, Bedfordshire, Northamptonshire and Suffolk.
Andy Smith, clinical operations manager and critical care paramedic at Magpas said: “Our new air ambulance for the local communities has shortened our response time during every incident flight so far.
“We’ve been to the whole region this week, taking us further afield than before, covering almost 700 air miles in that time and flying our hospital level care to patients more quickly. We have already airlifted three patients to hospital - that’s the same number of patients we airlifted in March - and the medical equipment bags fit even more efficiently on board the aircraft.”
The charity’s CEO Daryl Brown sums up with, “For almost 50 years now, Magpas Air Ambulance have been pioneering leaders in pre-hospital emergency medicine, putting our patients at the heart of everything we do. This new helicopter is a key example of how our service is continually evolving and developing to fit our patient and clinical needs. And so our lifesaving journey continues.”
Magpas Air Ambulance need to raise an extra £50,000 a month to keep their new air ambulance flying. To read more about how you can go #FurtherFasterGreater to support Magpas Air Ambulance, please click here https://magpas.org.uk/furtherfastergreater.
