Coronavirus: Thames Valley Air Ambulance predicts £1m shortfall

Thames Valley Air Ambulance treated 2,670 patients in the region last year

An air ambulance charity which has deployed its doctors and paramedics to help the NHS during the coronavirus pandemic has forecast a £1m drop in annual donations.

Thames Valley Air Ambulance said the majority of the lost revenue would be the result of cancelled community and business fundraising events.

It said the charity "urgently" needed extra donations to secure its future.

The service treated 2,670 patients across the region last year.

Thames Valley Air Ambulance, which has served residents in Berkshire, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire for 21 years, has never received government or National Lottery funding.

It said it had also paid for its doctors and paramedics to do shifts at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford since the pandemic began, with them mainly being deployed in the emergency department and Covid-19 wards.

The charity raised £8.7m last year and this is expected to drop to £7.25m in 2020, meaning its forecast of a £1m shortfall could yet be "a significant understatement".

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Neil Harman, Thames Valley Air Ambulance's director of fundraising, said: "Never before in our history have we anticipated such a large loss in fundraising over such a short period.

"We do want to reassure the public that whatever the response to our appeal, we will continue to provide life-saving care in the immediate future and be on hand to back-up the NHS in our efforts to tackle the pandemic.

"We are calling on those that can give, to back us at this time and help us secure our service well into the future."

A spokesman for the charity said Air Ambulance UK - which represents all 21 of the UK's air ambulance charities - had applied for help from a government scheme to provide £750m for frontline charities.

However, he said there was no guarantee that this application would be successful.

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