WNAA and DLRAA responded to over 3,000 missions in 2022

Warwickshire and Northamptonshire Air Ambulance (WNAA) and Derbyshire, Leicestershire and Rutland Air Ambulance (DLRAA) were tasked to 3,119 potentially lifesaving missions via helicopter and critical care car over the past year.

The DLRAA responded to 1,708 callouts, while WNAA responded to 1,411.

The highest number of callouts were to Leicestershire and Rutland with 732, Derbyshire had 558, Northamptonshire had 405 and Warwickshire had 386. An additional 397 were responded to across the West Midlands, 472 across Nottinghamshire, 81 across Lincolnshire, and others split across neighboring counties.

Like in 2021, the highest number of callouts were to medical incidents (34 per cent), then road traffic collisions (27 per cent), with the third highest being its ‘other’ category (24 per cent), consisting of assaults, self-harm and mental health incidents. Falls accounted for 10 per cent, sports three per cent and industrial two per cent.

Head of Operations for the charity, Philip Bridle said: “Our 24/7 frontline services were enhanced in 2022 as we made clinical developments through bringing blood products onboard and training our critical care paramedics in the use of ultrasound equipment.

“We have plans to further develop in 2023 by bringing new Critical Care Cars online as well as introducing new medical equipment such as ventilators and cardiac monitors, amongst other things, as we head towards our 50,000-mission milestone this year.”

Other air ambulance charities across the UK have also been busy, with Wiltshire, Cornwall and Devon Air Ambulances all seeing high levels of demand last year.