Hampshire Air Ambulance could leave base near Andover
The charity's chief executive says they are reviewing how fast they can reach patients
Last updated 17th Nov 2023
The head of the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Air Ambulance says they may move from their base near Andover.
Chief executive Richard Corbett revealed it was under consideration as part of their constant review of the service.
The charity is currently based at Thruxton airfield just west of Andover.
Mr Corbett said:
"At the moment we are based at Thruxton airfield, people can look at a map and see that it's very much in the north-west corner of the patch 'is that the right place long-term given the area we serve?' these are the type of questions we are asking ourselves all the time just to think 'how can we get there faster?' 'How can we get to people as quickly as possible?
"Purely based on geography it would make perfect sense to do that to be in that type of position (to move further south) clearly that is a lot easier said than done it's not easy to move a base like we have, we're talking longterm it is something we'll look at and all the other ways we can improve and enhance the service."
The current location of the base means long transit times when serving patients on the south coast and on the Isle of Wight.
Mr Corbett said they were also looking to expand their ground service with more vehicles carrying paramedics so that they had more crews available to support people.