Your local air ambulance reaches 50,000th mission milestone

Your local air ambulance – comprised of the Warwickshire & Northamptonshire Air Ambulance (WNAA) and the Derbyshire, Leicestershire & Rutland Air Ambulance (DLRAA) – has completed its 50,000^th mission.

WNAA and DLRAA provide pre-hospital emergency critical care, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. The services utilize both helicopters and critical care cars while working alongside East Midlands and West Midlands Ambulance Services.

Both air ambulance services are also celebrating this year: 2023 marks the 20^th anniversary of WNAA’s service and 15 years of DLRAA.

Critical Care Paramedic and Base Manager Philippa Gibbs said: “On 50,000 occasions, our clinical teams have been tasked in the air ambulance helicopters (63 per cent) or critical care cars (37 per cent) to go to the aid of someone who may need us.

“Since 2003, the response of the public to us has been fantastic as we have continued to provide frontline critical care across our five counties and further afield as we’ve responded to countless road traffic collisions, medical incidents, assaults, falls, sporting/leisure incidents and industrial accidents.”

Director of Operations Richard Clayton added: “As we have completed our monumental milestone of 50,000 lifesaving missions, I’m proud of how our frontline services have enhanced over the years and the clinical developments achieved – allowing our services to help lead the way in pre-hospital emergency medicine.”