Devon Air Ambulance Work Experience

For the past week I've been fortunate enough to spend with the large team behind the Devon Air Ambulance Trust. This has included the finance department, fundraising department, PR and finally the airbase situated at Middlemore (There is another base in North Devon.)

There's been so much I have learned about the Trust, and its been a great opportunity for me to compare the similarities and differences between a non-profitable charity and the NHS to enable health care. Although the NHS does too have to make cuts, and monitor money- they have an average annual income providing hospitals with enough money. However with a charity, it is alot harder to supply medical equipment and drugs with no stable income, and they have to spend a large amount of money on fundraising and promotion to bring in funds.

Why is an Air Ambulance so Important in Devon? As the map shows, devon is a huge county- and it stretches for about 105 miles North to South, with a very dispersed population. The county has a very poor infrastructure with many single track roads and every year has a large influx in holiday makers.

So why does that mean an air ambulance is useful? With such a dispersed population in a large county, there is not the necessary facilities or Ambulance services in close reach to everyone because its not possible. The poor infrastructure increases the journey time for land ambulances due to narrow roads. Therefore in many cases the land paramedics would arrive to the site too late to recover a patient from serious injury, this is where air ambulances save lives because they can get a defibrillator or essential medical services to the site of an accident or emergency 2.66 times quicker.

In some situations, for example severe burns or trauma accidents means neither land or air ambulance can recover patients at the site or guarantee full recovery. This is also where the air ambulance is essential, because they provide quick transfer to hospitals in major incidents such as severe burns where a child would be needed taken to Bristol Children's Hospital or adults to Swansea. This journey by land would take around 1hr30 to Bristol or 3hrs to Swansea- in this to patients could become, seriously ill due to blood infections. Similarly, major trauma incidents such as broken pelvis or internal bleeding would need to be transferred to Plymouth for the appropriate care. If the trauma patient was coming from the north it could take over 2 hours for the journey, and the patient may not stabilise.

In summary, the Devon air ambulance is essential at saving lives and whilst my time on work experience I have managed to hear amazing patient stories. Each mission, costs £3,500 along withthe maintenance   of the helicopter, equipment on board, drugs, employing paramedics and pilots- these things are only on the forefront of the picture. With simple things like stationary or facilities for finance employees need to be bought and maintained. Therefore it's a very expensive service, and is completely dependent on donations for the service.