Essex Air Ambulance
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Essex & Herts Air Ambulance Trust (EHAAT) is a charity air ambulance service providing a free, life-saving Helicopter Emergency Medical Service (HEMS) for the critically ill and injured of
Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and G ...
,
Hertfordshire Hertfordshire ( or ; often abbreviated Herts) is one of the home counties in southern England. It borders Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire to the north, Essex to the east, Greater London to the south, and Buckinghamshire to the west. For govern ...
and surrounding areas. The
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 * Ch ...
aims to save lives, reduce or prevent disability or suffering from critical illness and injury, by delivering a first class pre-hospital emergency medical service. Since fundraising began in 1997, Essex & Herts Air Ambulance has flown over 20,000 missions, and is deployed, on average, six times per day. 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 ...
s and rapid response vehicles (RRV) are based at
Earls Colne Airfield Earls Colne Airfield is a general aviation aerodrome located south-east of the village of Earls Colne, Essex, England. The site was previously RAF Earls Colne, a Royal Air Force station which was primilarly used by the United States Army Air For ...
and
North Weald Airfield North Weald Airfield is an operational general aviation aerodrome, in the civil parish of North Weald Bassett in Epping Forest, Essex, England. It was an important fighter station during the Battle of Britain, when it was known as the RAF Stati ...
.


History

The Essex Air Ambulance Charity was established and began fundraising in 1997, launching as a dual-paramedic and single-pilot service from
New Hall School New Hall School is a Catholic co-educational independent boarding and day school in the village of Boreham in the City of Chelmsford, Essex, England. It was founded in 1642 in the Low Countries, now Belgium, by sisters of the Catholic order Cano ...
in Boreham, Essex in July 1998. In 1999, the service began operating seven days a week, during daylight hours, as opposed to the previous five-day service. In 2003, the Essex Air Ambulance was upgraded to a Eurocopter EC135 T2. In April 2007, the Essex Air Ambulance charity became known as the Essex & Herts Air Ambulance Trust, responsible for both the Essex and the new Hertfordshire air ambulance services. The Hertfordshire air ambulance was introduced on 5 November 2008. With the launch of the Hertfordshire aircraft, Essex's operational colour stayed as yellow and Hertfordshire gained red – both of which featured on the helicopters G-EHAA and G-HAAT. Doctors were introduced to the Essex Air Ambulance Air crew in July 2008. This doctor/critical care paramedic model is used on both aircraft at all times. Pre-hospital care doctors could then work alongside specially trained critical care paramedics from the EEAST to optimise patient outcome. Doctors are employed by Mid Essex Hospital NHS Trust, on behalf of EHAAT except for a team of consultants, who are seconded from some of their hospital work. Paramedics are provided by EEAST. All paramedics are trained to critical care qualification, while doctors have a sub-speciality in
Pre-hospital emergency medicine Pre-hospital emergency medicine (abbreviated PHEM), also referred to as pre-hospital care, immediate care, or emergency medical services medicine (abbreviated EMS medicine), is a medical subspecialty which focuses on caring for seriously ill or ...
. The team of doctors also included a small number of consultants. In 2011, The Essex Air Ambulance's operational base moved from Boreham to Earls Colne Airfield and the charity head office and Essex fundraising team moved to Earls Colne Business Park in March 2015. In March 2017, to coincide with the charity's 20 year anniversary, a new brand was launched which unified Essex and Hertfordshire's previously separate identities to signify the united future of the charity. From October 2019, the critical care team became available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. This was the first time in the charity’s 21-year history that was able to provide a fully 24/7 aeromedical service to the people of Essex, Hertfordshire and the surrounding areas


Service

Essex & Herts Air Ambulance (EHAAT) provides Helicopter Emergency Medical Service (HEMS) seven days a week, from 7am until 8pm. The charity operates two helicopters, a MD 902 Explorer based at Earls Colne airfield and an AgustaWestland AW169 at North Weald airfield. During the hours of darkness an EHAAT Rapid Response Vehicle (RRV) based at
North Weald North Weald Bassett or simply North Weald is a village and civil parish in the Epping Forest district of Essex, England. The village is within the North Weald Ridges and Valleys landscape area. A market is held every Saturday and Bank Holiday Mo ...
is used from 7:30pm to 7:30am. RRVs are also operational for the hours where the aircraft is unable to fly in bad weather or maintenance.. EHAAT works in partnership with the
East of England Ambulance Service The East of England Ambulance Service NHS Trust (EEAST) is an NHS trust responsible for providing National Health Service (NHS) ambulance services in the counties of Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Essex, Hertfordshire, Norfolk and Suffolk, in the ...
(EEAST) who monitor incoming 999 calls and, according to clinical need, dispatch the critical care team from the critical care desk based in the emergency operation centre (EOC) at
Broomfield Hospital Broomfield Hospital is an acute district general hospital in Chelmsford, Essex. It is managed by the Mid and South Essex NHS Foundation Trust. History The hospital, originally known as Essex County Hospital, was designed as a hospital for the t ...
. The desk is manned by a critical care paramedic and a dispatcher to ensure appropriate tasking. The helicopters take off within twominutes of the emergency call being received at the airbase. The helicopter based at Earls Colne can reach the farthest point in Essex in less than 20minutes and the helicopter based at North Weald can reach the farthest point in Hertfordshire in less than 15minutes. The helicopters and RRVs can also carry cutting edge life-saving medical equipment and drugs, much of which will not be found on standard land ambulances along with the specially trained doctor in pre-hospital emergency medicine, who can perform life-saving open heart surgery and general anaesthesia at the roadside.


Crew composition

Each HEMS team consists of a pilot, co-pilot, a pre-hospital care doctor and a critical care paramedic, who can quickly attend the scene of an incident with life-saving support equipment to deliver advanced clinical care that is normally only found in the hospital emergency department. The dual-pilot scheme was introduced in 2016 to enhance patient care, as previously the paramedic would act as navigator, aiding the pilot.


Fleet

Essex & Herts Air Ambulance utilises two helicopters and four rapid response cars to transport their pre-hospital care teams. Both current helicopters entered service in August 2017. The helicopters have the ability to access remote parts of Essex and Hertfordshire quickly, unaffected by road traffic congestions. The helicopters can also reach areas inaccessible to land vehicles including woods, beaches, docks and golf courses.


G-HHEM – AW169

In March 2016, EHAAT signed a contract with aircraft operator, Specialist Aviation Services (SAS) to secure the purchase and operation of an
AgustaWestland AW169 The AgustaWestland AW169 is a twin-engine, 10-seat, 4.8t helicopter developed and manufactured by the helicopter division of Leonardo (formerly AgustaWestland, merged into Finmeccanica since 2016). It was designed to share similarities with the ...
, callsign Helimed 55, which is based at North Weald, Essex. This is the first aircraft the charity has purchased. It became operational in August 2017.


G-EHEM – MD902 Explorer

G-EHEM, an MD 902 Explorer, previously G-LNCT at Lincs & Notts Air Ambulance, continues to be leased from SAS. Its callsign is Helimed 07 and it is based at Earls Colne, Essex.


Rapid response vehicles

Each base has two
Volvo XC90 The Volvo XC90 is a mid-size luxury SUV manufactured and marketed by Volvo Cars since 2002 and now in its second generation. The first generation was introduced at the 2002 North American International Auto Show and used the Volvo P2 platform ...
RRVs for the medical crew to operate from when helicopters are offline in darkness and bad weather. They have four-wheel-drive capability to allow the team to reach the patient in adverse weather conditions in remote locations. When RRVs are operated, the callsign is changed from 'Helimed' to 'Medic' to signify they are a ground-based resource.


Past fleet

G-ESAM was 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 ...
, operated in Essex between 1998 and 2003. It was leased from Bond Helicopters. G-SSXX, 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 ...
, operated from May 2003 until 2010. It was leased from Bond Helicopters. In 2008, the first Hertfordshire aircraft launched, an MD 902 Explorer, which was leased from SAS. In 2010, in line with the new aircraft for Hertfordshire, Essex's aircraft was upgraded to an MD 902 Explorer, G-EHAA, which was leased from SAS. Previously the trust operated a single RRV. This was a BMW X3, which has been re-liveried into a charity advertisement vehicle, advertising the work the charity does.


Finances

In the year ended March 2021, EHAAT's income was £17.5million, including £1.9M of government grants, against expenditure of £11.3M, of which £7.4M was spent on delivering the emergency service.


Pre-hospital care network in the East of England

This charity is one of many pre-hospital care providers in the
East of England The East of England is one of the nine official regions of England. This region was created in 1994 and was adopted for statistics purposes from 1999. It includes the ceremonial counties of Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Essex, Hertfordshire ...
region, which has an established trauma network – the first to be fully operational in the UK after the London Trauma Network. Other pre-hospital care providers that they work and train alongside are: *BASICS Essex Accident Rescue Service (BEARS
[1
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[2
/nowiki>] *Suffolk Accident Rescue Service, Suffolk Accident Rescue Service (SARS) *Magpas, Magpas Air Ambulance *East Anglian Air Ambulance The East of England teams commonly end up working alongside crews from
Lincolnshire & Nottinghamshire Air Ambulance The Lincs & Notts Air Ambulance is an air ambulance based at RAF Waddington which covers the administrative counties of Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire and the unitary authorities of Nottingham, North East Lincolnshire and North Lincolnshire, ...
,
London's Air Ambulance London's Air Ambulance Charity is a registered charity that operates a helicopter emergency medical service (HEMS) dedicated to responding to serious trauma emergencies in and around London. Using a helicopter from 08:00 to sunset and rapid res ...
and
The Air Ambulance Service The Air Ambulance Service (TAAS) is a registered charity in the UK that runs two emergency air ambulances, the Warwickshire & Northamptonshire Air Ambulance (WNAA) and the Derbyshire, Leicestershire & Rutland Air Ambulance (DLRAA), and also op ...
, along with other
BASICS Basics or BASICS may refer to: Arts and entertainment * The Basics (band), an Australian band * The Basics (TV show), a 2021 American web series * ''Basics'' (Houston Person album), a 1989 album by saxophonist Houston Person * ''Basics'' (Paul B ...
charities.


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

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Essex and Herts Air Ambulance Air ambulance services in England Charities based in Essex Health in Essex