The Cornwall Air Ambulance Trust is a
charity
Charity may refer to:
Giving
* Charitable organization or charity, a non-profit organization whose primary objectives are philanthropy and social well-being of persons
* Charity (practice), the practice of being benevolent, giving and sharing
* C ...
that provides a dedicated
helicopter emergency medical service
Air medical services is a comprehensive term covering the use of air transportation, aeroplane or helicopter, to move patients to and from healthcare facilities and accident scenes. Personnel provide comprehensive prehospital and emergency and cri ...
(HEMS) for
Cornwall
Cornwall (; kw, Kernow ) is a historic county and ceremonial county in South West England. It is recognised as one of the Celtic nations, and is the homeland of the Cornish people. Cornwall is bordered to the north and west by the Atlantic ...
and the
Isles of Scilly.
The service also has two
critical care cars that operate when the
helicopter
A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by horizontally spinning rotors. This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forward, backward and laterally. These attributes ...
is unable to fly.
Together they attend about 1,100 incidents per year.
, the helicopter service had flown over 28,000 missions since 1987.
When introduced on 1 April 1987, Cornwall's
air ambulance
Air medical services is a comprehensive term covering the use of air transportation, aeroplane or helicopter, to move patients to and from healthcare facilities and accident scenes. Personnel provide comprehensive prehospital and emergency and cri ...
was the first dedicated HEMS operational in the United Kingdom. The helicopter enables a fast response to the most critically ill or injured and can facilitate access to isolated locations, such as beaches, cliff-tops and moorland areas, which are less accessible by road.
Operations
The service is based at a hangar at
Newquay Airport (EGHQ),
The helicopter can be airborne within two minutes of an emergency call and flies at . It can cover the entire county in an average of 12minutes and reach the
Isles of Scilly in 28minutes.
The
clinical hub for
South Western Ambulance Service
The South Western Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust (SWASFT) is the organisation responsible for providing ambulance services for the National Health Service (NHS) across South West England. It serves the council areas of Bath and North East ...
(SWASFT) makes decisions regarding mobilisation of this and the other five air ambulances provided by four different charities within the SWASFT coverage area.
Aircrew
The air ambulance carries a crew of three: one pilot plus either two critical care
paramedic
A paramedic is a registered healthcare professional who works autonomously across a range of health and care settings and may specialise in clinical practice, as well as in education, leadership, and research.
Not all ambulance personnel are p ...
s, or a critical care paramedic and a doctor. Paramedics are selected from the ambulance service and specially trained for their work on the helicopter. The training period is a minimum of one year which includes critical care practice and a postgraduate certificate as part of the MSc in pre-hospital critical care/retrieval and transport. Successful trainees are then confirmed in role as specialist paramedics in critical care (SPCC) but are more commonly referred to as critical care paramedics (CCP). They are additionally trained as helicopter technical crewmembers, responsible for air to ground communications as well as navigation and assisting the pilot in flight as required. The service has a number of full-time aircrew paramedics and doctors.
Aircraft
Messerschmitt Bölkow-Blohm Bo 105
The first helicopter was a
MBB Bo 105D (registration G-AZTI) which was replaced by a slightly larger Bo 105 (registration G-CDBS) which was used until 2001.
Eurocopter EC135
The next helicopter,
Eurocopter EC135T, is still used extensively as an air ambulance around the world. G-KRNW had a cruising speed of . The EC135 was replaced in 2014 after 13 years in service.
MD Helicopters MD 902
In late 2014, the aircraft provider changed from
Bond Helicopters to Specialist Aviation Services (SAS), who owned, operated and maintained the helicopters.
The service then changed to the
MD Helicopters MD 902,
which features a
no tail rotor (NOTAR) design. As part of the contract the service then had two helicopters (registration G-CNWL and G-CIOS: one on operational readiness, the other on immediate standby in case of engineering requirements or non-availability of the primary aircraft. Both MD 902 helicopters were delivered as night capable for HEMS operations in darkness.
In 2015, the helicopter was available for 12hours of the day, a first for the air ambulance service in Cornwall. This meant that during winter months the helicopters were available even during darker hours, thanks to the use of special night vision goggles mounted on the pilot's helmet.
Leonardo AW169
, Cornwall Air Ambulance now operates a single
Leonardo AW169 helicopter (G-CRWL),
replacing both of the MD902 Explorer aircraft. The AW169 is owned by the charity, and operated/maintained by Castle Air.
Reasons for choosing the new aircraft include double the fuel range reducing the need to refuel between missions, a greater cruising speed and being able to carry more medical supplies.
The AW169 was officially unveiled in July 2020 by
Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall
Camilla (born Camilla Rosemary Shand, later Parker Bowles, 17 July 1947) is Queen Consort of the United Kingdom and the 14 other Commonwealth realms as the wife of King Charles III. She became queen consort on 8 September 2022, upon the ac ...
, the charity's patron and after whom the aircraft is named.
Cost and financing
In the year ending 31 December 2021, the charity's income was £6.5million, including £25,000 of government grants. Expenditure was £5.4M, of which £4.2M was charitable spending on the air ambulance service.
Operational costs included pilots, service engineers, and insurances; as well as per-hour flying costs including fuel, spares, and servicing. The cost of the critical care paramedics is shared with their employer SWASFT.
Cornwall Air Ambulance is a
charitable organisation solely maintained by donations as it usually receives no form of official funding, although in its last financial year it received three government grants totalling £146,000,
comprising
Libor fines and capital purchase grants, which were used towards the purchase of the new AW169 helicopter.
Members of the public finance the air ambulance by donations, various fund-raising events, purchase of weekly lottery tickets and legacies.
See also
*
Air ambulances in the United Kingdom
*
Devon Air Ambulance
*
Healthcare in Cornwall
Healthcare in Cornwall, United Kingdom, was, until July 2022, the responsibility of Kernow clinical commissioning group, a National Health Service (NHS) organisation set up by the Health and Social Care Act 2012 to organise the delivery of NHS s ...
References
External links
*
*
{{Air ambulances in the United Kingdom
Air ambulance services in England
Organisations based in Cornwall
Rescue
Transport in Cornwall
Health in Cornwall