Western Isles Hospital helipad given £40,000 upgrade after charity donation

The helipad at Western Isles Hospital in Stornoway, UK has been given a £40,000 upgrade, and all thanks to a surprise donation from the Helicopter Emergency Landing Pads (HELP) charity.

A test flight in July 2015 of the new Bond helicopters which the Scottish Ambulance Service was bringing into service, highlighted the hospital’s need to upgrade the helipad’s grass surface. Vital time was lost transferring patients across this surface, and stretcher wheels could often get stuck in the soft ground.

HELP chief executive Robert Bertram read about the Western Isles Hospital’s appeal for donations towards a new surface in a local newspaper, and had ‘no hesitation’ approaching the hospital with a £40,000 donation. The cash helped to lay reinforced concrete paving on the helipad, as well as upgrading the lightning.

Bertram explained: “Faced with extreme weather conditions on a daily basis, never was there a hospital that was so deserving an upgrade. Our donation has helped to ensure a secure and solid landing area for all air ambulances and the Coastguard search and rescue helicopter that will withstand any future storms all the way through to Wendy and beyond.”

He added: “Western Isles Hospital helipad needed an upgrade urgently. The poor state of the air ambulance landing area meant that vital time was being lost in rushing critically ill patients to mainland hospitals.”

The charity have been giving out grants for helipads since 2009, and have made two other donations to Scottish hospitals, one of £700,000 to the new helipad at Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow and another to help fund a new helipad at Edinburgh Royal Infirmary in 2017. HELP makes these donations without Government or National Lottery funding, being instead reliant solely on donations from the public.

NHS Western Isles chief executive Gordon Jamieson appreciated the donation from HELP: “I can only thank them most sincerely for their kindness, for making themselves known to us and then funding the work in its entirety. They had a no nonsense, straightforward approach. They were very quick to make decisions, very prompt in their responses and very positive. All round, I found it a very positive and somewhat humbling experience and one which I will always remain grateful.”