Dorset and Somerset Air Ambulance launches fundraising campaign

Dorset and Somerset Air Ambulance (DSAA), a helicopter emergency medical services (HEMS) charity in southern England, has launched a fundraising appeal to acquire a second helicopter.

The 2ndHeli Appeal aims to raise the final £1 million needed to purchase and equip a second air ambulance helicopter to support the charity’s operations across the counties of Dorset and Somerset.

DSAA stated that at present, it responds to nearly 3,000 missions per year using its one AW169 – known as Peggy, short for Pegasus – but that “with increasing demand and unavoidable downtime for maintenance, a single helicopter is no longer enough.”

A second aircraft will support further expansion

They said that adding a second helicopter to regular operations will:

• Strengthen resilience and operational availability
• Maintain air operations when one aircraft is offline
• Enable clinicians to deliver the highest level of care, day and night
• Allow for an extension of operating hours can be considered in future (DSAA currently flies for 19 hours a day)
• Enable hundreds of additional life-saving missions every year.

DSAA explained that the majority of the funds for the aircraft have already been raised through “prudent financial planning and incredible supporter generosity”, and that the £1 million target is the “final push”.

“We are proud of how far we have come over the years, but we have reached the limit of what is possible with just one aircraft,” said Charles Hackett, CEO of Dorset and Somerset Air Ambulance. “With daily maintenance requirements, we cannot get more than 19 hours a day of flying, and the demands on Peggy mean that faults and issues come around all too soon.

“We now have an incredible opportunity to transform emergency care even further across the region, and hope the public, businesses and local communities will support us on our quest,” he added.

Scotland’s Charity Air Ambulance recently unveiled a new H145 D3 of its own.