The Great Western Air Ambulance Charity (GWAAC) is a charity
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 ...
service in
South West England
South West England, or the South West of England, is one of nine official regions of England. It consists of the counties of Bristol, Cornwall (including the Isles of Scilly), Dorset, Devon, Gloucestershire, Somerset and Wiltshire. Cities and ...
. It operates for the relief of sickness and injury, with a specialist
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 ...
in
critical care and a critical care doctor, providing response by helicopter or car between the hours of 7:00 am and 1:00 am, 365 days a year. The service covers
Bristol
Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city in ...
,
North Somerset
North Somerset is a unitary authorities of England, unitary district in Somerset, South West England. Whilst its area covers part of the Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county of Somerset, it is administered independently of the non ...
,
Bath and North East Somerset
Bath and North East Somerset (B&NES) is a unitary authority district in England. Bath and North East Somerset Council was created on 1 April 1996 following the abolition of the county of Avon. It is part of the ceremonial county of Somerset.
Th ...
,
South Gloucestershire
South Gloucestershire is a unitary authority area in the ceremonial county of Gloucestershire, South West England. Towns in the area include Yate, Chipping Sodbury, Thornbury, Filton, Patchway and Bradley Stoke, the latter three forming part ...
,
Gloucestershire
Gloucestershire ( abbreviated Glos) is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn and the entire Forest of Dean.
The county town is the city of Gl ...
, and surrounding areas.
History
GWAAC was created in 2008. At launch, it operated a
Eurocopter EC135
The Eurocopter EC135 (now Airbus Helicopters H135) is a twin-engine civil light utility helicopter produced by Airbus Helicopters (formerly known as Eurocopter). It is capable of flight under instrument flight rules (IFR) and is outfitted with ...
, but as flying hours increased the funding was not available, so the charity moved to a
MBB Bo 105
The Messerschmitt-Bölkow-Blohm Bo 105 is a light, twin-engine, multi-purpose helicopter developed by Bölkow of Ottobrunn, West Germany. It was the first light twin-engine helicopter in the world, and the first rotorcraft that could perform a ...
helicopter. In 2012, the charity started a campaign to raise the money needed to return to the EC135. The goal was reached in 2014, and in October the EC135 (registered G-GWAA) arrived at the base in
Bristol Filton Airport
Filton Airport or Filton Aerodrome was a private airport in Filton and Patchway, within South Gloucestershire, north of Bristol, England.
Description
The airfield was bounded by the A38 road to the east, and the former London to Avonmouth r ...
.
The EC135 had a 40% increase in cabin volume, allowing the team to offer better inflight treatment. It had an extra seat, allowing medics to be trained on-board or a child patient to be airlifted with a parent. It can also land on elevated hospital
helipad
A helipad is a landing area or platform for helicopters and powered lift aircraft.
While helicopters and powered lift aircraft are able to operate on a variety of relatively flat surfaces, a fabricated helipad provides a clearly marked hard s ...
s, and allows side loading. On 1 August 2017, GWAAC upgraded to an EC135 T2+ model, registration G-GWAC, leased from
Babcock Mission Critical Services Onshore
Babcock Mission Critical Services Onshore, formerly Bond Air Services (Bond Aviation Group), is an operator of air ambulance, police, and offshore windfarm helicopters in the UK. Babcock operates a mixed fleet of light twin-engine helicopters cu ...
, which has more advanced features and a longer range.
In 2012, it was announced that Filton airfield, where GWAAC and the
National Police Air Service
The National Police Air Service (NPAS) is a police aviation service that provides centralised air support to the 43
territorial police forces in England and Wales, as well as the three special police forces serving that area. It replaced the pr ...
(NPAS) had been based, was to close.
Their landlord,
BAE Systems
BAE Systems plc (BAE) is a British multinational arms, security, and aerospace company based in London, England. It is the largest defence contractor in Europe, and ranked the seventh-largest in the world based on applicable 2021 revenues. ...
, agreed to find a new site and construct an airbase for the services.
A site was identified in South Gloucestershire, adjacent to the
Almondsbury M4/M5 Interchange, approximately north of the Filton base. Planning permission was granted in August 2016.
Work started at the site in late 2017, with both services moving to the new base in October 2018.
In July 2018, GWAAC launched a public appeal to raise funds to buy the new airbase from BAE Systems, following it being put up for sale during its construction. GWAAC raised £1.3million towards the purchase, which completed in December 2018. NPAS remain on site as tenants of GWAAC. In September 2019, the new airbase was officially opened by
Prince Richard, Duke of Gloucester
Prince Richard, Duke of Gloucester, (Richard Alexander Walter George; born 26 August 1944) is a member of the British royal family. He is the second son of Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester and Princess Alice, Duchess of Gloucester, as well ...
.
Operations
![GWAAC helicopter](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/55/GWAAC_helicopter.jpg)
The charity serves a population of 2.1 million. It has received grants in the past from the national government, but does not receive operational funding from the government or
National Lottery, and is normally funded by public donations.
In 2020, the charity raised income of £4.0million, including £190,000 from government grants.
It spent £4.1M, of which £2.6M was spent operating its helicopter and critical care cars.
Within four minutes of an emergency call being received the helicopter can be in the air, and it can be anywhere within the region it covers in 20minutes.
GWAAC also operates critical care cars, used at night or when the helicopter is not feasible – for example due to the location of the patient, or the helicopter being at another job, or otherwise unavailable. The helicopter does not fly during the hours of darkness.
The specialist
critical care team consists of a
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 ...
and doctor, who provide a remote
emergency department
An emergency department (ED), also known as an accident and emergency department (A&E), emergency room (ER), emergency ward (EW) or casualty department, is a medical treatment facility specializing in emergency medicine, the acute care of pati ...
to the patient. The crew carry blood and
fresh frozen plasma
Fresh frozen plasma (FFP) is a blood product made from the liquid portion of whole blood. It is used to treat conditions in which there are low blood clotting factors (INR > 1.5) or low levels of other blood proteins. It may also be used as the re ...
to help treat patients who have suffered major trauma to stabilise them for transport, usually to a
Major Trauma Centre, for adults or children. This has been found to result in significantly improved patient outcomes.
Local
blood bike
A blood bike is a motorcycle used to courier urgent and emergency medical items including blood, X-rays, samples, drugs, and documentation between hospitals and other healthcare facilities.
In the United Kingdom and Ireland, a network of largely ...
charity
Freewheelers EVS
Freewheelers Emergency Voluntary Service (EVS) is a blood bike charity based in South West England. Founded in Weston-super-Mare in 1990, it is funded by public donations and staffed by unpaid volunteers.
Association with other blood bike cha ...
assists
NHS Blood and Transplant
NHS Blood and Transplant is an executive non-departmental public body of the United Kingdom's Department of Health and Social Care.
It was established on 1 October 2005 to take over the responsibilities of two separate NHS agencies: UK Transplan ...
with the logistics of keeping the helicopter supplied with blood and plasma.
In 2018, GWAAC were called to 1,887 incidents, their busiest year since the service started in 2008.
During the
COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...
the service responded to
COVID-19
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...
cases, and crew members joined a team carrying out inter-hospital transfers for COVID-19 patients requiring intensive care.
See also
*
Air ambulances in the United Kingdom
Air ambulance services in the United Kingdom provide emergency medical functions, patient transport between specialist centres, or medical repatriation. Services are provided by a mixture of organisations, operating either helicopters or fixed ...
References
External links
*
*
{{Air ambulances in the United Kingdom
Air ambulance services in England
2008 establishments in England
Health in Bristol
Health in Somerset
Health in Gloucestershire