Thames Valley Air Ambulance responding to record numbers

This Road Safety Week, which runs until November 25, Thames Valley Air Ambulance announced it has responded to double the number of call-outs in October compared to the month before.

Road traffic collisions were the leading incident type the crew were dispatched to in the month. Delivering advanced medical care to patients critically injured from road traffic collisions accounted for more than a third of the expert crew’s responses.

This significant month-on-month increase was a direct result of the charity’s recent expansion of its emergency medical service.

The key contributors to the charity’s capability to enhance its service across the region were the addition of more critical care response vehicles and the hiring of twelve more paramedics.

On the roadside, Thames Valley Air Ambulance’s highly trained crew deliver the skills that would often only be found in the emergency department. Commenting on the pre-hospital emergency care the team regularly delivers, doctor Syed said: “Due to the landscape of the region we serve, we often attend road traffic collisions in rural locations.

“The patients we treat are often the most critically ill and injured. When a patient has had a serious road traffic collision and we are deployed, their injuries are often life-threatening.”

To give patients the best possibility of survival and recovery, the speed of response and the administering of the correct treatment is crucial. Doctor Syed said: “Modern emergency medicine has progressed significantly to give patients the best chance to survive trauma.

“Our ethos is simple; ‘we bring the hospital to the patient’. Through innovation and research, we deliver advanced pre-hospital emergency care. “This includes everything from anaesthesia, blood transfusions and on-scene surgical interventions.”

To find out more or support the work of Thames Valley Air Ambulance please visit www.tvairambulance.org.uk or call 0300 999 0135.