Clinical Capability

Our cohort of clinicians include a mixture of senior emergency physicians, intensive care consultants and anaesthetists and specialist practitioners in critical care. All form part of the air operations crew and, as part of their role, assist the pilot with navigation and operation of some of the aircraft systems.

We provide a critical care team, consisting of at least a doctor and specialist practitioner, for each mission. The doctors are drawn from NHS Hospital Trusts across the region and the practitioners are from the South Western Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust (SWASFT). More recently, some clinicians have joined us from further afield, broadening the skills and experience of the team.

Our pilots are provided by Specialist Aviation Services Ltd, who operate our aircraft. They are carefully selected because air ambulance flights are typically more challenging than regular non-emergency flight services. They have a great deal of experience in low-level operations and instrument flying.

We operate 19 hours a day (7.00am – 2.00am) using our AW169 helicopter and critical care car and provide an enhanced care service using our outreach car from 10.00am-10.00pm.