London Air Ambulance grounded for nearly three weeks
The rotocraft that deals HEMS in the UK capital is undergoing annual maintenance. The charity is launching a fund raising to purchase a second helicopter
The HEMS in the city of London remains resoundingly to the ground. The only HEMS helicopter in service in the skies of the capital of the United Kingdom, an MD 902 Explorer registered G-EHMS operated by London's Air Ambulance charity (all air ambulance in UK and Wales are funded by non-profit organizations), is in fact undergoing annual maintenance operations and will remain grounded for the next 18 days.
London's Air Ambulance have launched a fundraising campaign to support the purchase of a second helicopter by the summer. According to the local media reports, the Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne has already donated a million pounds to the cause, while other £700.000 would come from private donors.
ONLY ONE HEMS HELICOPTER IN LONDON
The only one HEMS Helicopter based at the Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel, costs around £5 million a year to run. To pay the salaries of the trauma doctors is the Barts Health NHS Trust, while London Ambulance Service takes care of the salaries of paramedics.
It is not clear, at moment, why it is not available a backup helicopter. On the official page of the charity, this "hole" is explained: London's Air Ambulance has always flown with two pilots, renting a helicopter (another MD 902) to cover the period of maintenance of the first rotocraft, an operation that - according to the charity - would not be possible in 2015 for the transition to the licenses multi pilot EASA and the lack of a HEMS equipped helicopter for such rules.
In the video: A day with the crews of London's Air Ambulance
Chief executive Graham Hodgkin said to the Evening Standard newspaper: "I wouldn't want the people of London to be worried. We will deliver a team through the rapid-response car. The reality is that our dispatch times are likely to take longer and therefore delivering the team is slightly diluted."
Hodgkin also revealed that the majority of people, despite HEMS is active in London since 25 years, struggling to believe that actually it is a charity to manage the service and, above all, that only one HEMS configured rotocraft flies in the skies of the British capital for more than 10 million potential users.
