1999 Expand DSAA was registered as a charity in December 1999 by a joint venture of trustees from Dorset and Somerset Ambulance Service. Seed funding was received from the Government and the Automobile Association. The airbase was established at Henstridge, near Sherborne. The charity operated from a broom cupboard in Taunton Ambulance Station with one fundraiser and one volunteer, eventually moving to a portacabin on this site.
2000 Expand The charity started a Society Lottery with an office in Bournemouth Ambulance Station Our first Flight for Life Lottery Draw took place on 19th December by Jeremy Beadle at the Bournemouth Pavillion Theatre. Our service came online at 8.00am on the 21st March 2000; 52 minutes later we were tasked to our first mission. The charity started a Society Lottery with an office in Bournemouth Ambulance Station. Our first Flight for Life Lottery draw took place on 19th December. This was drawn by Jeremy Beadle while he was in pantomime at the Bournemouth Pavilion Theatre.
2000-2006 Expand During this time, we operated a twin-paramedic model of operation which was pretty much the standard of the time and changed very little for many years. The principle was to get to the patient as quickly as possible, carry out an immediate assessment, stabilise them and package them for transportation to hospital. Our crew consisted of two paramedics and a pilot and operated during daylight hours only. During the first three years of operation, our aircraft costs were met by the AA grant and our medical costs were met by the ambulance service.
2007 Expand The Bolkow 105 served us well for seven years, but in 2007 we decided to upgrade to a more modern aircraft, the EC135. HRH The Princess Royal, Princess Anne, formerly unveiled our new helicopter at a ceremony held at the Fleet Air Arm Museum, Yeovilton. SWASFT created a permanent Helicopter Emergency Medical Service (HEMS) desk to cover the south west region. This was the first full-time HEMS desk in the country; today it is funded by the five air ambulance charities it serves.
2008 Expand Geoff Jarvis (owner of Henstridge Airfield) built a purpose-built air ambulance hangar and leased it to the charity for a peppercorn rent. The charity moved to new offices in Wellington.
2011 Expand In 2011, we began looking at ways to develop our critical care capability and increased our paramedics to six. Our Lottery office moved to leased offices in Wimborne and we organised our first ever Coast to Coast Cycle Challenge.
2013 Expand In 2013, we sponsored a unique, post-graduate education programme for eight paramedics. This was funded by the charity and run in partnership with the University of Hertfordshire, SWASFT and a number of NHS hospital trusts across the region.
2015 Expand During our 15th Anniversary year, we began operating a critical care model for 3.5 days a week. Our unique education programme received national recognition when we were awarded a Health Service Journal Award for ‘Improving Outcomes through Learning and Development’.
2016 Expand We made the transition to providing a full critical care service for seven days a week. Our team expanded to 10 paramedics and 14 doctors. DSAA announced a collaboration with Dorset County Hospital, Devon Freewheelers, SWASFT and the Henry Surtees Foundation, which resulted in patients being able to receive blood components at the scene of an incident. We officially opened a new clinical training facility, a day/night aviation planning facility, suitable technical storage space and improved crew rest facilities at our Henstridge airbase.
2017 Expand On 12th June, DSAA acquired a new AW169 helicopter, in a joint venture with new operator, Specialist Aviation Services, the firstto enter air ambulance operational service in the UK. We began night operations and extended our operational hours to 19 hours a day: 7.00am – 2.00am.
2018 Expand After holding a competition to find a name for our new aircraft, ‘Pegasus’ was unveiled at a ceremony which took place at Leonardo Helicopters in Yeovil. Our clinical team expanded to 14 practitioners and we recruited two part-time Patient and Family Liaison Nurses. The HEMS Desk extended their hours and staff to cover the longer shift in air ambulance operations. The charity purchased our head office building in Wellington.
2019 Expand DSAA approved a grant to the South Western Ambulance Service Charity, to support the training and equipping of volunteer community first responder groups within Dorset and Somerset. In April 2019, in addition to the critical care service we provide by helicopter and critical care car, our practitioners took to the road, in a bid to take outreach to a new level. This innovative additional DSAA service operates between the hours of 10.00am until 10.00pm.