Community Relations Week Crumlin 16/09/24-22/09/24
On 14th September 2024, our shared education partnership worked along with Tesco Crumlin to raise money for a vitally important charity that has helped members of our local community and their families-The Northern Ireland Air Ambulance! The HEMS is a service that is there for you, your loved ones. Here are some interesting facts that we found out:
- AANI in partnership with NIAS provides a Helicopter Emergency Medical Service (HEMS) and responds to severely ill or injured patients.
- We operate 12 hours a days, 7 days a week, 365 days per year.
- NIAS provide the medical crew, medicines and equipment.
- We have a team of 8 paramedics and 15 consultant doctors delivering the service, on a rotational basis. Clinical Lead is Dr Darren Monaghan, Operational Lead is Paramedic Glenn O’Rorke.
- We have one operational helicopter and one back up helicopter, as well as a rapid response vehicle. The back-up helicopter is used for training and to minimise down time. The helicopter uses approximately 250l Jet1 aviation fuel per hour.
- The call sign for the helicopter is Helimed 23 as designated by the Civil Aviation Authority. The call sign for the rapid response vehicle (RRV) is Delta7.
- Our operational base is located just outside Lisburn, Co. Antrim.
- The charity employs 8 staff and has a board of 8 Trustees (all Trustees are voluntary)
- It takes £2.5m each year to sustain this service or £6,850 per day.
- The £2.5m funds helicopter rental, aviation team consisting of two pilots and a full-time engineer, fuel, insurance, the hangar where the helicopters are housed, base for the team, medical crew uniforms and the charity infrastructure required for governance and to raise and administer funds.
- When we are tasked it takes on average approximately four minutes to be airborne.
- As of September 2022, Air Ambulance NI have entered a 10-year partnership agreement with Sloane Helicopters Limited to provide two HEMS Agusta Westland 109 helicopters, pilots and aircraft maintenance for Northern Ireland’s Helicopter Emergency Medical Service (HEMS). These are excellent helicopters for HEMS operations and will benefit patients due to rapid start-up and shut-down times, together with a high cruise speed which means the HEMS team can reach patients more quickly. The AW109 aircraft have an excellent payload capability and patient access. This new chapter is a huge step forward for Air Ambulance NI and our partners the Northern Ireland Ambulance Service.
- The service is tasked to city and rural localities alike. As well as speed of arrival, the HEMS brings an extremely experienced team to the scene of the incident, effectively flying the hospital to the patient. This means that an advanced level of pre-hospital care begins within minutes.
- Onward travel to hospital can be via air, road ambulance with the HEMS crew on board or road ambulance with the NIAS road crew.
- When a 999 call comes in, the HEMS Paramedic on duty has responsibility for dispatch of the air ambulance service. Certain incidents will mean automatic dispatch; other calls will need further information to ascertain if the service is needed. In some instances, the NIAS road crew may task HEMS on arrival at scene.
- Approx 31% incidents are to road traffic collisions, 25% are to falls, and a further 10% are to agricultural incidents. The remaining incidents are trauma related, some from a sporting activity; or could occur whilst at work or home.
We volunteered from 10am-6pm informing the Tesco shoppers of the important job the NIAA do for all and the money that this requires to be sustained. Kindly, shoppers made generous donations throughout the day and were very interested in the facts we had to share! We met lots of new friends from our partner schools that we will be working with this year! Tesco staff were lovely and provided us with some refreshments!
The collection buckets were all sent off to be counted and we are excited to hear the final amount we raised!
It was a very enjoyable and rewarding day!
