Air Ambulance Service
| Abbreviation | TAAS |
|---|---|
| Formation | 2005 |
| Legal status | Registered charity |
| Purpose | Finance and co-ordination of three UK air ambulance charities |
| Location |
|
|
Region served
|
UK |
|
Chief Executive
|
Andrew Williamson |
| Website | www |
The Air Ambulance Service (TAAS) is a registered charity in the UK that runs two emergency air ambulances, the Warwickshire & Northamptonshire Air Ambulance and the Derbyshire, Leicestershire & Rutland Air Ambulance, and also operates the national Children's Air Ambulance, an emergency transfer service for seriously ill babies and children.
The charity is a member of the Association of Air Ambulances.
The service runs three services, two are emergency helicopters covering Warwickshire, Northamptonshire, Derbyshire, Leicestershire and Rutland and the third is the Children's Air Ambulance that covers England and provides an emergency transfer service for seriously ill babies and children. The Children’s Air Ambulance has also completed a number of missions to Wales and Scotland.
Warwickshire & Northamptonshire Air Ambulance and the Children’s Air Ambulance are operated from Coventry Airport, and Derbyshire, Leicestershire & Rutland Air Ambulance is operated from East Midlands Airport.
The charity leases its three Augusta Westland 109 helicopters from Sloane Helicopters. They can reach a maximum speed of about 185 mph.
The Children’s Air Ambulance can reach anywhere in the UK within two hours, and can reach all of the UK’s specialist children’s units within 70 minutes. Both children and clinical teams are moved using the AW109 helicopter, which is always flown with two pilots. The clinical teams usually consist of a paediatrician and a specialist nurse.
Children are transported in a bespoke stretcher designed and built in partnership with consultant paediatricians and transport nurses. It can carry a baby up to 8 kg being in a specialist ‘baby pod’, or facilitate larger babies and children on the stretcher mattress. The stretcher design allows for the equipment needed for paediatric intensive care to be secure and easily operated, whether in flight or on the ground.
If children are too ill to travel, the Children’s Air Ambulance will transfer specialists from one of their clinical partner teams to a local hospital. It is not a helicopter emergency medical service, which go to the scenes of medical emergencies and trauma for pre-hospital intervention, but rather an inter-hospital emergency transfer service.
The service currently works with six NHS clinical partner teams across the country. Working alongside a key clinical partner, the service has achieved accreditation with the Commission on Accreditation of Medical Transport Systems, a recognised international standard for safety, quality and governance. All three of the services the charity operates are registered with the Care Quality Commission.
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