Advancing Emergency Care: How Your Support Drives Innovation

Air Ambulance Week 2024: Today’s Supporter, Tomorrow’s Lifesaver – a message of thanks from EHAAT’s clinicians to our amazing supporters

National Air Ambulance Week is an opportunity for all of us who deliver clinical care to our patients, to thank everyone who supports the work that we do.

We have always believed that the faster emergency treatment is delivered, the better outcomes can be for patients. Over more than 20 years, our service has evolved from one which aimed to fly patients to hospital as quickly as possible, to one which brings some of the most advanced interventions in the world to the scene of the incident. For patients who are badly injured, or suddenly seriously ill, we know that our interventions can make a life-changing difference. We want to do more and more to help.

In addition to delivering a senior doctor and senior paramedic to the scene, our charity is rapidly innovating so that we can be at the forefront of novel treatments. Many of the innovative treatments that are available in hospitals in 2024 would not have been heard of 20 years ago. We are determined to push the boundaries of air ambulance care, to achieve the same transformation.

In 2022, we commenced work towards a Centre for Excellence for pre-hospital medical care at EHAAT. The idea was that we would bring together some of the most talented individuals and experts to work together in research, education and innovation. We are working alongside academic colleagues from other air ambulances, universities, and hospitals to shape an exciting new future for the care that we deliver. We are only able to do this thanks to the contributions that the public make to our charity. We are proud to work alongside the NHS and others, collaborating to create an environment where excellence in medical care can flourish.

We are setting out to deliver new opportunities for all our patients. We have a specific focus on the management of sudden cardiac arrest, and severe head injury. By investing in innovative care, we know we can achieve outcomes in the future that are not currently possible. Our Patient Experience and Outcomes team is putting significant work into how we support our patients during and beyond the initial phase. Measuring our outcomes more accurately will help us deliver better care as we learn from every case.

Our patients really matter to us, and we think about our patients and their families long after we have delivered our part of their care. We know that for many patients, we are a small but crucial part of their long journey. For families, we constantly contemplate how we can help and provide support and hope, even when the situation seems insurmountable.

Thanks to the support we continue to receive from the public, those who volunteer for us, or work for our charity, we know that we have an exciting future ahead. The very visible work that our pilots, doctors, and paramedics do for our patients is only possible because of the help that you give behind the scenes.

Thank you again, for the work that you do to support EHAAT.

Dr Gareth Grier

Centre for Excellence Project Lead