Essex & Herts Air Ambulance

Essex & Herts Air Ambulance Trust

Abbreviation	EHAAT
Headquarters	Earls Colne, Essex
Region	East Anglia and London: mainly Essex and Hertfordshire
Key people	Jane Gurney – CEO
Website	www.ehaat.org

Essex & Herts Air Ambulance Trust (EHAAT) is a Charity Air Ambulance service providing a free, life-saving Helicopter Emergency Medical Service (HEMS) for the critically ill and injured of Essex, Hertfordshire and surrounding areas. It is not funded by the NHS – only by charitable donations.

The charity aims to save lives, reduce or prevent disability or suffering from critical illness and injury, by delivering a first class pre-hospital emergency medical service.

Since fundraising began in 1997, Essex & Herts Air Ambulance has flown over 20,000 missions^[1] – being deployed, on average, four to five times per day. The helicopters and Rapid Response Vehicles (RRVs) are based at Earls Colne Airfield and North Weald Airfield.^[2]

It costs £6 million every year to cover all charitable costs and aircraft operations.^[3]

Service

Essex & Herts Air Ambulance provides Helicopter Emergency Medical Service (HEMS) 7 days a week, between 7am and 9pm. At sunset, the helicopters cease to operate, when rapid response vehicles (RRVs) come into operation to provide cover until 9pm. RRVs are also operational for the hours where the aircraft is unable to fly in bad weather or maintenance.

On Friday and Saturday, between 9pm and 2am, the Critical Care Team extends its operating hours, again using RRVs. The overall goal of the charity is to become a 24/7 helicopter service.

Each HEMS Team consists of a Pilot, Co-Pilot, a Pre-hospital Care Doctor and a Critical Care Paramedic, who can be rushed to the scene of an incident with life-saving support equipment to deliver advanced clinical care that is normally only found in the hospital emergency department. The dual pilot scheme was introduced in 2016 to enhance patient care^[4] - as previously the paramedic would act as navigator, aiding the pilot.

EHAAT works in partnership with the East of England Ambulance Service NHS Trust who monitor incoming 999 calls and, according to clinical need, dispatch the Critical Care Team from the Critical Care Desk based in the Emergency Operation Centre at Broomfield Hospital. The desk is manned by a Critical Care Paramedic and a Dispatcher to ensure appropriate tasking.^[5]

The helicopters take off within two minutes of the emergency call being received at the Airbase. The helicopter based at Earls Colne can reach the farthest point in Essex in less than 20 minutes and the helicopter based at North Weald can reach the farthest point in Hertfordshire in less than 15 minutes. Once a patient is stabilised the HEMS Team will triage patients to the most appropriate hospital if they require specialist care, such as a Major Trauma Centre. This saves vital minutes between onset of illness or time of accident to the patient receiving specialist medical care in hospital. The helicopters and RRVs can also carry cutting edge life-saving medical equipment and drugs, much of which will not be found on standard land ambulances - along with the specially trained Doctor in Pre-Hospital Emergency Medicine, who can perform life-saving open heart surgery and general anaesthesia at the roadside.^[6]

Fleet

G-HHEM landing at its launch event in 2017.

Essex & Herts Air Ambulance utilises two helicopters and six rapid response cars to transport their pre-hospital care teams.

G-EHEM landing in Harwich, Essex at the Charity's Motorcycle Run event.

G-SSXX: operated between 2003 and 2010

G-HAAT: operated between 2008 and 2017

G-EHAA: operated between 2010 and 2017

History

The Essex Air Ambulance Charity was established and began fundraising in 1997, launching as a dual paramedic and single pilot service from New Hall School in Boreham, Essex in July 1998.^[12] In 1999, the service began operating 7 days a week, during daylight hours - as opposed to the previous 5-day service.

In 2003, the Essex Air Ambulance was upgraded to a Eurocopter EC135 T2.^[13]

In April 2007 the Essex Air Ambulance charity became known as the Essex & Herts Air Ambulance Trust (EHAAT), responsible for both the Essex and the new Hertfordshire Air Ambulance services. The Hertfordshire Air Ambulance was introduced on 5 November 2008.^[14] With the launch of the Hertfordshire aircraft, Essex's operational colour stayed as yellow and Hertfordshire gained red – both of which featured on the helicopters G-EHAA and G-HAAT.

Doctors were introduced to the Essex Air Ambulance Air Crew in July 2008^[15] – this new Doctor/Critical Care Paramedic model is used on both aircraft at all times. Pre-hospital Care Doctors could then work alongside specially trained Critical Care Paramedics from the East of England Ambulance Service NHS Trustt to optimise patient outcome. Doctors are employed by Mid Essex Hospital NHS Trust, on behalf of EHAAT - except for a team of consultants, who are seconded from some of their hospital work. Paramedics are provided by EEAST. All paramedics are trained to Critical Care qualification, while doctors have a sub-speciality in Pre-hospital emergency medicine. The team of doctors also included a small number of Consultants.^[16]

In 2011, The Essex Air Ambulance's operational base moved from Boreham to Earls Colne Airfield and the Charity Head Office and Essex Fundraising Team move to Earls Colne Business Park in March 2015.^[17]

In March 2017, to coincide with the Charity's 20 year anniversary, a new brand was launched which unified Essex Air Ambulance and Herts Air Ambulance, bringing them together for the first time to signify the united future of the Charity.^[18] Before this, both helicopters would interchange between Essex and Hertfordshire area on almost a daily bases - despite the names.

Pre-hospital Care Network in the East of England

This charity is one of many Pre-hospital care providers in the East, which has an established trauma network – the first to be fully operational in the UK.

Other Pre-hospital care providers that they work and train alongside are:

• BASICS Essex Accident Rescue Service (BEARS) [1]
• BASICS Hertfordshire [2]
• Norfolk Accident Rescue Service (NARS)
• Suffolk Accident Rescue Service (SARS)
• Magpas Air Ambulance
• East Anglian Air Ambulance

The East of England teams commonly end up working alongside crews from Lincolnshire & Nottinghamshire Air Ambulance, London's Air Ambulance and The Air Ambulance Service, along with other BASICS charities.

References