At the end of 2021, Eliga Services partnered with the Children’s Air Ambulance. We donated our time and capabilities to help save lives.
Since partnering, we’ve given the equivalent of £3,500 of our time. This is the cost of one of the Children’s Air Ambulance missions. Additionally, we’ve also expanded our support to include The Air Ambulance Service.
Eliga Services’ Head of Operations states, ‘Giving back and helping communities is an important part of the Eliga culture. The Air Ambulance Service – which operates the Children’s Air Ambulance and your local air ambulance (WNDLR) – provides a critical service. A mission can obviously be the difference between life and death. We are proud to help support them.’
What is The Air Ambulance Service’s purpose?
The Air Ambulance Service’s vital missions give people the very best chance of survival and recovery. Together with the Children’s Air Ambulance, they ensure children grow into adults and that adults live longer, helping families stay together. Moreover, each of its services works tirelessly to save lives and alleviate sickness wherever and whenever possible.
Why does it need support?
Both services do not receive any government funding. They rely entirely on voluntary donations and support from the public, communities and businesses like Eliga. Furthermore, the specialist equipment for the Children’s Air Ambulance, distance covered, and aircraft size requires more funding to cover missions nationally.
What main services are provided by The Air Ambulance Service?
Your local air ambulance (WNDLR), which covers a total of five counties, consists of:
- Warwickshire & Northamptonshire Air Ambulance
- Derbyshire, Leicestershire & Rutland Air Ambulance.
The crews bring an expert level of pre-hospital critical care and rapid response to trauma and medical emergencies over an area of 3850 square miles. This area includes the UK’s major road networks: M1, M6, M69 and M42. As a result, the service attends an average of ten rescue missions a day.
Additionally, the Children’s Air Ambulance is changing the face of Paediatric and Neonatal care through the high-speed transfer of critically ill babies and children, flying them from one hospital to another for specialist care.
What care is given by your local air ambulance (WNDLR)?
Your local air ambulance’s helicopters can fly at 185mph and carry the very latest lifesaving equipment. With an average response of just 13 minutes, these helicopters attend to incidents within minutes. Your local ambulance (WNDLR) crews give lifesaving critical care at road traffic collisions, sporting events, and industrial accidents, or for medical emergencies such as cardiac arrest, strokes, and accidents in the home.
The dedicated Critical Care Paramedics and Doctors on-board perform out of hospital surgical procedures from thoracotomies and caesareans to amputations by the roadside. This effectively brings the hospital to the patient.
What care is given by the Children’s Air Ambulance?
The Children’s Air Ambulance’s clinically designed AgustaWestland169 helicopters provide a flying intensive care unit for babies and children. All transfers of critically ill babies and children carry an inherent risk. As a result, the longer a child is out of the hospital, the greater that risk. With the ability to fly approximately four times faster than a land ambulance on the road, the service minimises that travel time and risk.
The custom equipment on-board includes a specially designed stretcher system and clinical interior, Babypod, and extra seat for a parent to be able to accompany their child. The latest pioneering advancement is the bespoke design to offer ECMO (Extra Corporeal Membrane Oxygenation) and nitric oxide functionality on-board the helicopters. Undoubtedly, these state-of-the-art facilities make the helicopters second to none in the provision of paediatric and neonatal transfers.
Who operates your local air ambulance (WNDLR)?
The team is made up of skilled pilots, critical care paramedics and doctors from a wide range of backgrounds. Moreover, the service recently launched two new helicopters in 2021. Learn more.
Crucially, the team is also supported by Critical Care Cars. These cars provide valuable backup for incidents close to the helicopter base or when the weather makes it too dangerous to fly. As a result, this allows them to reach those in need 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.
Who operates the Children’s Air Ambulance?
The Children’s Air Ambulance’s skilled pilots and operations team work alongside 11 NHS paediatric retrieval teams across the UK. Consequently, this network enables them to bring their specialist equipment on board to safely transfer their patients.
How much does one mission cost?
- It costs your local air ambulance (WNDLR) £1,700 for each rescue mission.
- The national Children’s Air Ambulance needs £3,500 for every mission.
How many missions have The Air Ambulance Service attended to date?
- In 18+ years, your local air ambulance service (WNDLR) has attended over 45,000 missions.
- The Children’s Air Ambulance has attended 650-lifetime missions.
Partner testimonial
Director of Income Generation, Donna Young states, ‘We are incredibly grateful to Eliga for supporting us. By donating their time and expertise, they have not only provided us with a significant cost saving that could fund a lifesaving Children’s Air Ambulance mission, they have also moved us forward in a pivotal piece of work that will have a huge impact on the charity. The project will make us more efficient, help us provide better support to our donors and customers and, most importantly, enable us to raise more money to fund further vital work. It has been so enormously helpful to have Eliga on board supporting us in this way. We can’t thank them enough for sharing their knowledge and devoting their time to this crucial work.’
In summary, by giving to the Children’s Air Ambulance and your local air ambulance service (WNDLR), you can help to keep hope alive for patients and their families.