Hampshire and Isle of Wight Air Ambulance anticipates ‘even busier 2023’
Last year, the charity responded to nearly 2,000 missions
Hampshire and Isle of Wight Air Ambulance (HIOWAA) has released figures for the past year, responding to 1,814 missions, making 2022 the busiest year for HIOWAA since before the pandemic. This was 244 more incidents than 2021.
The busiest month of the year was December, with 193 callouts – the most in a single month since December 2019. Thirty-four per cent of these incidents involved cardiac arrest, 17 per cent were road traffic collisions, with 17 per cent medical emergencies, such as seizures. Other cases included falls from height, assaults, self-harm and sporting incidents.
Of the 1,814 callouts, 124 were to the Isle of Wight.
HIOWAA aircraft were airborne for 547 hours during the year, and its three emergency response vehicles covered more than 54,000 miles.
Due to growing demand, the charity enhanced its operational model. It recruited additional specialist doctors, introduced a secondary daytime crew to attend a wider range of incidents and extended flying hours to 19 hours a day, seven days a week.
Chief Executive Richard Corbett said: “Each of those 1,814 calls for our help meant someone was in desperate need of our care. Whether they require advanced medication or sedation, a blood transfusion or even a surgical procedure, our specialist crews can do all of this before the patient reaches hospital. Thanks to the advancement of our service, we anticipate being even busier in 2023.”
2022 was HIOWAA’s 15th year of operations, which AirMed&Rescue highlighted in its August issue.