The Hampshire & Isle of Wight Air Ambulance has touched down in central Newport this afternoon (Friday) as specialist medics respond to a life-threatening emergency on a residential street.
The yellow helicopter has landed in Nine Acres Playing Field, just metres from the scene of the ongoing medical emergency.
It started circling overhead just before 14:00.
Flying doctors have joined colleagues from the Isle of Wight Ambulance Service at a property on Woodbine Close.
2 ambulance crews and a critical care paramedic are on scene.
Hampshire and Isle of Wight Air Ambulance is the charity that delivers an advanced Critical Care Team to sick and injured people in Hampshire and the Isle of Wight when they need it most.
Available both day and night, 365 days a year, the Air Ambulance Critical Care Team is called out an average of seven times a day to attend road traffic collisions, sporting accidents, collapses and many other incidents.
Donate today to help make their next mission possible.
UPDATE @ 14:40 – The casualty has been conveyed to St Mary’s Hospital by land ambulance. Flying doctors have also relocated to the St Mary’s Hospital helipad.
Can someone explain why the helicopter is deployed so often and then either stood down or land ambulance used, who is assessing these call outs?
Yes, I can “common!”
Paramedics & specialist paramedics are highly trained and their skills set is often greater than a hospital based Dr.
Thet get called out to a cat 1 call,based on assessment from call handler on 999.
Once they attend patient they do their magical wizardry etc and
perform an amazing assessment and plan. Often the helimed is tasked to attend, immediately after the 99 call is made so that there is no delay to urgent treatment
If the patient requires, and is suitable for transfer to QA for cardiac surgery, (stents, bypass etc) the helmed team have already been dispatched. Should the patient be having an angina attack or is non critical, then they will be transferred to a local hospital. This action then frees up the helped team to respond to other cases. Our helimed teams, and craft, should be government funded for sure, yet they depend on charity fundraising.
So “common” consider donating some pennies, who knows, one day you might need these “golden hour heroes”
Well said, Sapphire!