Hopes Devon Air Ambulance will stay independent
Devon Air Ambulance will stay funded by and run for the people of Devon
The future of Devon's Air Ambulance is becoming clearer.
The service is due to stay independent, after facing calls for it to be centrally funded.
Its chief executive Helena Holt says that they're "extremely proud of its independence and wants to remain that way."
"We do appreciate the rationale behind calls for centralised funding of air ambulances. Whilst grants for one off expenditure on items like the critical care cars have been a tremendous help, government funding of our day to day running costs would inevitably come with many strings attached that would stifle our ability to determine how best to deliver and develop our service for our local community.
"We have seen the impact of austerity measures implemented across all parts of the public sector. At the same time, thanks to our independence and local support, DAA has been able to invest in both improving and expanding our service in many important ways."
Helena Holt - Chief Executive of DAA
Such improvements include the addition of an Airbus H145 aircraft with a bespoke interior layout and state of the art technology on board; introducing a Patient Support service, provided by three Patient Liaison Clinicians, and increasing operating hours into the early hours of the morning, which saves more lives.
Devon Air Ambulance Trust is the Charity which raises the funds to keep Devon’s two Air Ambulances flying and in March 2020 the charity also introduced two Rapid Response, Critical Care Cars to their fleet of emergency vehicles.
The service is 29 years old and is funded only by the generosity of the communities, businesses and friends of Devon. In 2020 they were tasked to 1101 missions by Helicopter and 406 missions by Critical Care Car.
The Exeter based aircraft operates until 2am every day and in 2020 was called to 207 missions in the hours of darkness using a growing network of Community Landing Sites.