Wiltshire Air Ambulance 'busiest it's ever been'
The charity has dealt with nearly 700 incidents in 2024 already
We've been told that the Wiltshire Air Ambulance is the busiest it's ever been, attending almost 700 incidents during the first half of 2024.
The charity has seen a 25% rise in call outs between January and June this year, after 543 missions in the first half of 2023.
"It's never nice when someone experiences what is probably the worst day of their life," said the charity's Adam Baker.
"We don't go for, for scratches and scrapes when somebody is critically ill suffering a heart attack, a medical collapse ir a serious Rd traffic collision that's when our dedicated air crew are called to an incident, so it is extremely serious," he added.
Adam called the 682 callouts 'disconcerting', saying the charity used to have around three missions per day, but that's now grown to four.
To deal with that, they've had to up the amount of fundraising they do to £4.5million for the year - roughly £12,000 per day.
Around half of the incidents the Air Ambulance has attended, a doctor has been onboard for, meaning they're able to give critical care at the incident before a patient is taken to hospital.
"We can take the skill level to one extra step, we can carry out surgical procedures on the side of the road whether it's open heart surgery potentially, it's helping people breath, we can do that in a field in the side of the road, in your home, and that just gives the patient the better chance of surviving," Adam told us.
Increased workload unlikely to relent
With the busy summer holiday period just around the corner, Adam said it's unlikely that the workload will reduce: "It seems like there's no period where it's going to sort of tail off. It's going to be busy, busy, busy."
The charity's urging us to keep ourselves safe during the summer months - and that includes on the roads.
"This year alone, we've been to 97 road traffic collisions and that's probably at a time where the roads haven't been at their busiest yet. So just take that time, take some care, take precautions," Adam said.
He added: "We don't want to have to be called out to as many missions as we are, but we will be there if you need us."