Air Ambulance Service Experiences Second-Busiest Year Ever

The Air Ambulance service serving Leicestershire and Northamptonshire experienced its second-busiest year ever during 2023.

Crews responded to over 3,800 lifesaving missions with medical incidents amounting to the highest number of call-out, followed by road traffic collisions.

Air Ambulance Helicopters

The charity which launched 20 years ago relies on public support to keep its two helicopters in the sky and fast-response cars on the road, with each mission costing over £2,000.

The highest number of callouts were to Leicestershire and Rutland with 849, while there were 466 in Northamptonshire.

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.”

The Air Ambulance Service team