The UK’s only dedicated children’s air ambulance service is to double in size under £32m plans unveiled on Tuesday.
Two new Children’s Air Ambulance helicopters are to come into service next year, flying from new bases in the north and south of England.
Currently the service has capacity to fly only one in three of the estimated 1,000 children and babies each year who need an emergency helicopter transfer from their local hospital to specialist care.
It is hoped that the two new helicopters will be able to reach every child who needs a potentially life-saving flight.
Transfers by helicopter can be up to four times quicker than by road and can mean the difference between life and death for the most seriously ill patients.
At a ceremony at the Italian embassy in London, the charity that operates the national Children’s Air Ambulance will formally sign a seven-year lease on two Anglo-Italian AW169 helicopters. The new aircraft will come into service in 2017 – providing 19 hours-a-day coverage, seven days a week.
Research has established when such flights are needed so the service believes it will be able to help every child even though the service is not a 24-hour one.
The Children’s Air Ambulance, which receives no government funding, flew its first mission in 2013 and works alongside seven specialist NHS transport teams. Each children’s transfer costs an average of £2,800.
It currently has one helicopter based at Coventry that operates in daylight hours, Monday to Friday. The two new helicopters, which will be able to carry incubators, will replace this craft.
Richard Clayton, director of operations, said: “The two new helicopters will create a truly national service that’s available when it’s needed. Children and babies don’t just get sick in office hours.
“The new 169s will be able to fly most days of the year – pretty much round the clock. The centralisation of specialist paediatric and neonatal teams over the years means patients can be hundreds of miles from the specialist care they need in an emergency.
“With a truly national Children’s Air Ambulance service, we can be at any hospital in the UK within 25 minutes to transfer the patient to a specialist centre such as Alder Hey in Liverpool or Evelina London children’s hospital.
“And when a child is too sick to travel even by helicopter, then we can fly the specialist team direct to their local hospital.”
Dr Shelley Riphagen, lead consultant at Evelina London, said: “To have a second helicopter and flight team dedicated to moving critically ill children into paediatric intensive care units … would be a great step forward in ensuring we offer the very best, world-class transfer service to these children and families.”
