Air ambulance helping Warwickshire communities records its second busiest year in 20 years

The air ambulance covering Warwickshire has announced its second busiest year in 20 years, responding to 3,803 missions throughout 2023.

The Warwickshire and Northamptonshire Air Ambulance (WNAA) along with the Derbyshire, Leicestershire and Rutland Air Ambulance (DLRAA), have worked around the clock over the past year – and despite the continued impact of the cost-of-living crisis, the charity has continued to provide pre-hospital critical care across its five counties and further afield.

Its crews were tasked to 3,803 potentially lifesaving missions via helicopter and critical care car – 684 more than in 2022 - with DLRAA responding to 2,194 of the callouts and WNAA responding to 1,609.

Head of operations for the charity, Philip Bridle, said: “Despite continued economic difficulties everyone has faced over the last few years, the generous support from our local communities has meant our dedicated crews could continue attending lifesaving missions in 2023 – our second busiest year since we began in 2003.

“We attended our 50,000th mission in 2023 and we continued to enhance our 24/7 services by bringing on new Critical Care Cars, introducing equipment to deliver critical care medicines and assist with surgical procedures, and continued to roll-out our training for critical care paramedics surrounding ultrasound - amongst many other things.

“We have plans to further improve our services this year through clinical developments and research studies and projects to ensure we continue to help lead the way in pre-hospital emergency medicine and patient care.”

2023 also marked the WNAA’s 20th anniversary and DLRAA’s 15th anniversary.