Cornwall Air Ambulance

The Cornwall Air Ambulance is a dedicated helicopter emergency medical service for Cornwall. The helicopter carries out approximately 1000 missions a year. Cornwall's Air ambulance when introduced on 1st April 1987 became the first dedicated Helicopter Emergency Medical Service (HEMS) to operate in the United Kingdom. The helicopter provides a relatively quick response time with access to isolated beaches, cliff-tops and moorland areas which are inaccessible by road. The Cornwall Air Ambulance is maintained by the First Air Ambulance Service Trust (FAAST).

Operations
The helicopter is based at a hangar at RAF St. Mawgan, near Newquay, which enables servicing and maintenance to be carried out overnight, a task which proved impossible at the original open-air base at Treliske Hospital. The move to St. Mawgan has also given the Air Ambulance a more centrally located base, leading to even quicker response times in many parts of the county. It can be airborne in two minutes of a 999 call and flies at 160 mph enabling fast paramedic support to the patient. It can cover the entire county in less than 15 minutes and reach the Isles of Scilly in 30 minutes. On average it takes 12 minutes from the time of the call to the scene of the incident.

Patients are taken to either Derriford Hospital or the Royal Cornwall Hospital (Treliske).

The aircrew
The Cornwall Air Ambulance carries a crew of three, the pilot and two paramedics. To enable seven-day flying, the service presently uses three pilots who are shared with Bond Air Services' Trinity House operation which, like the Air Ambulance, is based at RAF St. Mawgan. The aircrew are selected from existing ambulance service personnel and specially trained for their work on the helicopter. There is a pool of twenty aircrew who work on the Air Ambulance on a rotation basis. In the intervening periods between being on the helicopter the crew revert to their normal jobs on the road ambulances in the county.

The aircraft
The first helicopter was a Eurocopter BO 105 which was later replaced with the more advanced Eurocopter EC 135. The EC 135 is used extensively in an air ambulance capacity throughout the world. It has four rotor blades to ensure a smooth flight which can prove particularly beneficial for patients suffering head or spinal injuries. Twin jet engines give it a cruising speed of 160mph, and skid landing gear allows it to cope with all types of terrain. Its compact dimensions allow it to land in confined spaces, yet it has room to carry 2 stretcher patients. It contains all equipment found on any front-line ambulance plus other special items.

The control decision
The control centre for the South Western Ambulance Service is located at Exeter and is manned twenty four hours a day, everyday, throughout the year. It is here that the decisions are made regarding ambulance mobilisation for the four counties of Cornwall, Devon, Somerset and Dorset, in response to 999 calls. The decision is made by the Cornwall Controller as to whether the patient should go by land ambulance, or be flown to hospital on the Air Ambulance.

Cost and financing
It was assessed that the cost of the Air Ambulance was seven times more than a land ambulance, but it could cover the same area as seventeen land vehicles. Operational costs for the Cornwall Air Ambulance are £80,000 a month as of 2007. This includes the lease of the aircraft, pilots, service engineers, spares, servicing and insurances, as well as a charge of some £350 per flying hour to cover fuel and other combustibles. The cost of the two paramedics is borne by the Strategic Health Authority, by whom they are employed.

The Cornwall Air Ambulance is a charitable organization solely maintained by donations as it receives no form of official funding. The resident population and visitors to Cornwall finance the Air Ambulance by donations, various fund-raising events, purchase of weekly Air Ambulance lottery tickets and legacies.

All donations received are administered by the First Air Ambulance Service Trust (FAAST), a registered charity established in November 1987 for this purpose.