LBC joins London's Air Ambulance ahead of two new helicopters taking to the skies following £15m fundraising drive

20 September 2024, 08:10

LBC lifts the lid on London Air Ambulance staff

By Henry Riley

@HenryRiley1

LBC spent a shift with Matt Mak, a Helicopter Emergency Medical Service (HEMS) consultant and Nick Baxter, a HEMS paramedic, to find out what goes into the Air Ambulance’s life-saving work.

London’s Air Ambulance (LAA) are a pivotal aspect of emergency medical care in the capital.

They are the only helicopter emergency medical service which cares for the 10 million people that live, work and travel in London every day.

Since 1989, the group have treated nearly 50,000 critical injured people in the capital, and attended major incidents such as the 7/7 bombings, the 2017 London Bridge terror attack and the Grenfell Tower fire.

Last year alone LAA’s consultants and paramedics treated over 2,000 people, on average attending to 5 seriously injured people each day.

From carrying out open chest surgery on the side of a road, to giving blood transfusions in a public park, and putting patients into an induced coma at the scene, in - the work they do saves lives.

LBC went behind the scenes with HEMS consultant Matt Mak, and paramedic Nick Baxter to spend a shift on the frontline, and discover the challenges they face on a daily basis.

Asked about some of the challenging situations they are presented with, Nick Baxter told LBC that "I think to naively say it doesn't affect me would be incorrect.

"I think you have to be a certain type of person. There are some jobs which linger for a lot longer than others".

Matt Mak told LBC "I think you have to have the emotional resilience in order to deal with somebody's worst day, and then be prepared to do that several times a day.

"An average day at work for each of us, almost always is the worst day for the people we treat. We are sometimes doing open heart surgery on the streets of London".

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Last year assaults including attacks from knives, guns and crossbows were the highest percentage of LAA's callouts at 28% - representing 557 instances where the air ambulance was on the scene treating often critically injured patients.

Yet the service is paid for by donations. The medical staff are provided by the NHS, but the helicopters and support staff are paid for through donations.

Indeed London’s Air Ambulance have 2 brand new helicopters just weeks away from service following a successful fundraising drive - with the helicopters costing £15 million.

The new aircraft are essential for the service as they require less maintenance than the previous helicopters, meaning they will be able to attend more emergency call outs.

The helicopters are absolutely vital. They allow the pilots to fly anywhere within London, and to get to any location within the M25, in just 11 minutes. Similarly, the average flight travel time to an incident is merely 7.5 minutes.

The crucial time saved can often be a matter between life and death given the severity of the injuries they treat.

Senior First Officer Toby Chamberlain is one of the LAA's pilots and said that the helicopters are "crucial".

He told LBC "we never know where we are going to go before we go, we get a small amount of detail - and that is the beauty of the helicopter. It means we can get our crew where they need to be very quickly".

Someone who told LBC that they "owe their life" to the Air Ambulance is David Johnson from Essex who suffered a cardiac arrest on a bike ride.

He recalled those moments to LBC and said "I believe they were there within 9 minutes. I was actually dead until they arrived. Those three guys that turned up out of the blue, I'm only here because of their wonderful expertise".

David, who is getting emotional, says "These guys just came out of the sky. I'm even getting choked up now, it was just 'wow'. As a service, this is magnificent, and as a charity it's difficult to understand that it does rely on charity".

London’s Air Ambulance is a charity that operates in partnership with both Barts Health NHS Trust and the London Ambulance Service. 

An advanced trauma paramedic operates from the Service’s control room and is responsible for dispatching London’s Air Ambulance to the most critically injured people in London, 24 hours a day.