Midlands Air Ambulance Charity extends operational hours

Midlands Air Ambulance Charity says the change will allow it to attend more critical emergencies

A rapid response road vehicle run by an air ambulance charity is operating for longer hours to meet increasing demand.

The critical care car run by Midlands Air Ambulance Charity from its Strensham base in Worcestershire now runs until 02:00 every night, after previously ceasing operations at 20:00.

In the first month, its team responded to nearly 30 medical and traumatic incidents during the extended hours.

The charity said it had extended its hours as "we knew we needed to adapt".

Previously the charity's southern rapid response vehicle ran from 08:00 to 20:00, with one specialist critical care paramedic on board.

People living in Herefordshire, Worcestershire and Gloucestershire had already benefited from the extended hours, according to Midlands Air Ambulance.

It said its two critical care cars carried the same advanced life-saving equipment as its three helicopters.

That kit included hospital grade ventilators, a mechanical CPR machine and advanced drugs not carried on NHS ambulances, the charity said.

Since the start of its extended hours, the car had been dispatched to road traffic collisions, accidental injuries, assaults and medical conditions, it added.

After carrying out analysis of its call-outs to people in a critical condition, the service now operated its southern critical care car between 14:00 and 02:00, with two critical care paramedics on board.

Ian Jones, the charity's clinical operations director, said: "When the research demonstrated that patients across Gloucestershire, Herefordshire and Worcestershire would potentially benefit from our expertise outside of our current operational hours, we knew we needed to adapt."

The charity said its operational day started at 07:00 with its helicopter based at RAF Cosford in Shropshire and its central critical care car covering Birmingham and the Black Country.

Meanwhile, helicopters at Strensham and Tatenhill airbase in Staffordshire operated from 08:00, while the northern critical care car for Staffordshire and Shropshire ran from 10:00, it said.