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Air Ambulance campaign poster.pngDonate for second helicopter ambulance, says Boris Johnson
Mayor Boris Johnson has urged Londoners to give generously to the London Air Ambulance's appeal to fund a second helicopter to provide year-round high-speed cover for casualties in the capital.
The Air Ambulance Service is looking to raise a total of £6 million for the new helicopter. The fund currently stands at £1,612,689.
Having a second helicopter will allow the service to reach an estimated 400 more patients per year by aircraft, a spokesman said.
The Mayor said: “We rightly rally together to rapidly raise millions for disasters in other countries around the world but on this occasion the need is right here on our doorstep.
"I am very proud that London’s air ambulance has such a world-leading reputation for delivering the most cutting-edge advanced trauma care outside of hospital.
“That has only been possible thanks to the generosity of Londoners to date. Please rally together and support this fantastic campaign.”
The Air Ambulance service has come to the aid of many cyclists involved in road traffic crashes. On December 8 2014, rapid intervention by the Air Ambulance team almost certainly saved the life of Victoria Lebrec after she was hit by a lorry.
She told the Evening Standard: “I think I’m really lucky to be alive.
“A lot of ducks were lined up. If one of those hadn’t been in place, I wouldn’t have made it. I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for the air ambulance and the surgeons.”
Tom Konig, one of the surgeons who operated on Ms Lebrec, said: “Had she suffered her injuries two years ago, she wouldn’t have made it to hospital, which is a testament to the pre-hospital team that went to her."
But the service has just one helicopter, which means it can only attend one incident at a time, and there is no back-up when the aircraft is being serviced.
Last month the helicopter was out of action for 18 days for its annual service and was grounded for 55 days in 2014. The service had previously been able to rent a relief helicopter of the same type, an MD902 Explorer, to cover a maintenance period.
But an Air Ambulance spokesman told road.cc: "In 2015 there is currently no appropriately equipped helicopter available to operate under the current multi pilot rules. The intended acquisition of a second helicopter by London’s Air Ambulance will permanently resolve this issue."
To find out more and make a donation, see the London Air Ambulance website.
John has been writing about bikes and cycling for over 30 years since discovering that people were mug enough to pay him for it rather than expecting him to do an honest day's work.
He was heavily involved in the mountain bike boom of the late 1980s as a racer, team manager and race promoter, and that led to writing for Mountain Biking UK magazine shortly after its inception. He got the gig by phoning up the editor and telling him the magazine was rubbish and he could do better. Rather than telling him to get lost, MBUK editor Tym Manley called John’s bluff and the rest is history.
Since then he has worked on MTB Pro magazine and was editor of Maximum Mountain Bike and Australian Mountain Bike magazines, before switching to the web in 2000 to work for CyclingNews.com. Along with road.cc founder Tony Farrelly, John was on the launch team for BikeRadar.com and subsequently became editor in chief of Future Publishing’s group of cycling magazines and websites, including Cycling Plus, MBUK, What Mountain Bike and Procycling.
John has also written for Cyclist magazine, edited the BikeMagic website and was founding editor of TotalWomensCycling.com before handing over to someone far more representative of the site's main audience.
He joined road.cc in 2013. He lives in Cambridge where the lack of hills is more than made up for by the headwinds.
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Cycling infrastructure does not force drivers to break the law, drivers are the reason they break the law, no one else.
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11 comments
Having raised money for both the Yorkshire and London Air Ambulances over the years, and put money in collection tins for other air ambulances round the country, I feel a great sense of pride in the British people that these air ambulances are paid for and funded by charitable donation.
It stops them being the playthings and bargaining counters of politicians.
This country has a long and noble tradition of raising money for the greater good via public subscription and long may it remain so.
It is an absurd situation that these air ambulances have to be funded from charities. When you think how many (much more expensive) helicopters are operated by the navy, army and air force why can't air ambulances be centrally-funded?
According to Wikipedia there are about 29 air ambulances operating in England, 4 in Scotland and 3 in Wales.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_ambulances_in_the_United_Kingdom
It is ridiculous that London only has one air ambulance considering that it's population is nearly 3x that of Wales.
This is not a political issue either. Both Labour and Tory governments have had the opportunity to rectify this situation but have declined to do so __ including many years when Labour enjoyed huge tax surpluses.
I think the sparseness of the population is the reason why Wales and Scotland have more. In London the traffic might be bad but you aren't that far from a major hospital and normal ambulances can reach you quite quickly. For most A&E purpose that's pretty good. Could always be better but the point is that if you are in London and call for an Ambulance one will arrive pretty quickly and get you to a hospital pretty quickly.
In Wales and Scotland and some rural areas of England because of the sparseness of the poulation you could be an hour's drive away for the ambulance and 70 miles away from A&E.
BTW the London Air Ambulance doesn't just do regular A&E shouts like the ones in Wales and Scotland do. It has a very specific role in getting really serious "golden hour" casualties to a specific Trauma unit.
So while in Wales and Scotland it might be the only way to get an ambulance to you and you to A&E in a reasonable time it also has a role in the less serious cases that still need an ambulance. In London most of the time a regular ambulance will do and the helicopter deals with the relatively few very serious trauma cases.
For example in the outback in Australia they use an ambulance plane because a helicopter doesn't have the speed or range .
Just a reminder, TfL has pledged £30 million to the Garden Bridge and the treasury another £30 million.
Quite. I think that would be better used on two more helicopters and at least 30 more traffic police... then we could still throw a £30m party.
Politics is all about the art of decisions and when I saw this at this time I was stunned. That £60M could fund so much that benefits everyone and not just tourists.
How much does Boris pay for advisors ? How much has he donated himself ? Of course all air ambulances should be publically funded where ever they are. It is a sign as a country where we are where we have to have charities in effect funding it.
Oh good grief, the election is three months away and "political debate" is already invading this forum. Given a choice, which would you prefer
a) No politics on this cycling site.
b) No calling other forum members "twat" when there are differences.
I think politics is part of life, and I talk about issues which are political every year, election or not. I can usually manage that without swearing as a reflex response.
The stock exchange is taxed.
Probably best save the T word for the drivers that try to squash us.
Hmmm, It's an extremely valid cause but surely one which should be funded by the treasury rather than charitable donation.
Perhaps if all those London based businesses and individuals who channel their wealth through Luxembourg and other countries paid their fair share then the treasury could afford to fund things like this (and so much more).
By donating to this cause who's work I massively admire am I not letting the government and by extension those mentioned above off the hook?
Yes I always look at this stuff and think if the London Ambulance service or any other around the country needs a helicopter then it should be funded properly. But it seems that isn't the case anywhere unless it's different for rural sparsely populated areas where a normal ambulance service couldn't reach anyway.
So that's the way it is.