Kent, Surrey and Sussex Air Ambulance

The speaker at our meeting on 23rdMay was Colin Kelvey from the Kent, Surrey and Sussex Air Ambulance service (KSSAA). The KSSAA is an independent charity which receives no support from the NHS towards the £6.5million annual operating costs  Apart from meeting the cost of operating two helicopters they have to employ their own medical staff. Fund raising therefore is a very big and crucial part of the service.

Launched in 1989 the service now operates two helicopters based in Marden and Redhill, provides a 24 hour, 7 day a week operation and carries out 2000 missions a year.  Emergency calls are monitored by helicopter emergency medical service (HEMS) which decides whether the air ambulance is required. The HEMS will normally identify between 6 and 8 appropriate incidents a day, liaise with the emergency serves and provide logistical support. The main criterion to decide on the launch of a helicopter is whether there has been major trauma, for instance, bleed to the brain, broken spine, pelvis, ribs, femur or facial and jaw bones.  Each medical team will comprise a doctor and a paramedic and the doctor will perform whatever procedure is necessary in the field to keep a patient alive. Rather than be transferred to a local hospital, unless well stabilised, patients are taken to the nearest hospital with a major trauma unit. The majority of incidents are road traffic accidents but sport, particularly golf where access for land based vehicles may be difficult, also accounts for a number of missions.

The service now has two helicopters, a McDonnell Douglas MD-902 and an Augusta Westland 169 which is 50mph faster, has twice the range and contains a stretcher with 360 degree access so the patient can be treated on the aircraft.

As a charity the KSSAA can make much quicker decisions than the NHS!  One decision was to carry blood and plasma on board for any patient who may need it. Also on board is bubble wrap – it is excellent for keeping a patient warm and can also reduce the vibrations a patient may feel during the flight!

For the future the service is moving from Marden to a more suitable site at Rochester and consideration is being given to obtaining a third helicopter for transferring patients, an operation for which the NHS can be charged thus making the third helicopter self-supporting.

Following on from Colin’s talk President Linda Fearn thanked him for such an informative talk saying that we had all been given a much greater insight into the service. The club made a donation to the charity.