The Hampshire and Isle of Wight Air Ambulance (HIOWAA), founded in 2007, is a UK-based charity dedicated to providing emergency medical services to parts of southern England.

The service, which as the name suggests, operates across the English county of Hampshire, and the Isle of Wight, began life using a Messerschmitt-Bölkow-Blohm (MBB) Bo 105 to carry out operations.

Since then, it has upgraded – with its current Airbus H135 introduced in October 2015, provided by operational partner Babcock.

That helicopter was the first to be equipped with night vision goggles (NVG) technology, allowing the air ambulance provider to offer its services under the cover of darkness.

“We started actually utilizing night flying in early 2016,” said Richard Corbett, CEO. HIOWAA’s operational hours are currently between 07:00 hrs and 02:00 hrs, throughout the year, with an average of five missions per day.

The charity also operates a fleet of four ground-based emergency vehicles to expand its operations further, with two in operation at any given time, and two backups.

When asked whether HIOWAA would ever begin full 24-hour operations with its helicopter, Corbett said that the decision was a matter of when, rather than if.

“We definitely will go to 24-hour operations at some stage,” he said. “The question is around priorities, given the low number of jobs after 02:00 hrs – especially in the context of the last two years, where we’ve seen such an increase in costs across the board.

“It’s likely, if we move in that direction, that we’d have to look at a stepped approach so that we potentially provide the service in cars to begin with, and then extended aviation hours,” he added.

Babcock – a long-standing aviation partner

HIOWAA’s relationship with its aviation provider Babcock is long-standing, Corbett explained: “We’ve been with the same aviation provider – they signed up as Bond Brothers originally, and then Bond Brothers were bought out by, I think, Avincis, and then they were bought out by Babcock. So we’ve always had the same operator.”

Corbett explained that Babcock has been a partner of HIOWAA “since the charity first formed back in 2007 and our first flight” in one form or another.

“We most recently extended our contract in 2022, and we are just coming up to another renewal,” he said. “We’re at the point now where we decide whether we want to add on another four years.”

Babcock also provides pilots and maintenance services to support operations, and supplies a backup in the event that the helicopter is out of action, Corbett added. “It’s a full turnkey solution,” he said.

Working with University Hospital Southampton

HIOWAA also maintains a working partnership with University Hospital Southampton, which provides medical crew to the charity as part of a paid contract.

“All air ambulance models are slightly different,” he explained, “but in our case we provide all the funding … towards medical crew.”

All air ambulance models are slightly different, but in our case we provide all the funding … towards medical crew

He noted that this is in contrast with some other UK-based air ambulance services, where the National Health Service (NHS) provides medical crew as part of its regular service, without the charity having to provide financial support.

The hospital also serves as a source of on-board blood supplies for HIOWAA’s vehicles.

“We have that direct link into the blood banks [at University Hospital Southampton], and also we work with the blood bikers,” said Corbett.

The busiest year on record

Last year (2024) was HIOWAA’s busiest year on record, with 2,544 callouts. This represented a year-on-year increase of almost 40%.

While these statistics are impressive, Corbett stated that there were other factors at play than pure demand. In particular, the charity made more intensive use of its ground-based vehicles than in previous years – with 2024 being the first year in which that service responded to more calls than the helicopter.

Last year saw the critical care paramedic response car respond to over 800 missions, compared with just 239 in 2023.

Now we’re offering a kind of broader level of service, and we’re also working very closely with the local ambulance service

“Historically, it’s been very much as a backup for the aircraft, if there was a reason why it went down,” he explained. “Now we’re offering a kind of broader level of service, and we’re also working very closely with the local ambulance service. And that’s led to a lot more calls from ambulance crews who arrive at scene and realize that [it’s] a situation where they need added support.”

Consequently: “Going forward, we wouldn’t necessarily see the same significant level of growth. We expect always to have growth because populations are growing locally, but we would see that kind of levelling out over time.”

Serving Hampshire and the Isle of Wight

The region served by HIOWAA poses a number of challenges, said Corbett.

“The biggest single factor we have to deal with is the fact that we have a mixture of an urban population along the south coast … a couple of population centers in the north, and then an island” separated from the mainland by the Solent – one of the busiest waterways in the world. This means that as an organization, HIOWAA and its partners have to navigate an unusual mixture of long distances and dense urbanization, offering both medical transfers and a rapid emergency response.

A new, unified base

HIOWAA’s operations are currently spread over two sites in Thruxton and Southampton.

“In Southampton, we have the charity office – by which I mean the people directly employed by the charity, who mainly are involved in community engagement and income generation.”

The Southampton site is also home to a forward base for HIOWAA’s ground-based vehicles.

By contrast, the Thruxton facility serves as the home of the charity’s aviation operations.

This situation is about to change, however, as the charity is currently in the process of transferring its operations to a new, unified base located near Southampton Airport as part of its plans for the future.

It puts us closer to the population center on the mainland. And it also means that we’re closer to the Isle of Wight

“It’s always been a kind of ambition of the organization to move further south,” Corbett explained. “It puts us closer to the population center on the mainland. And it also means that we’re closer to the Isle of Wight.”

He noted that by relocating its air ambulance service further south, the expectation is that response times will be reduced significantly – something that is essential when assisting in time-sensitive medical cases.