Nottinghamshire air paramedics will be able to save more lives thanks to a brand new helicopter arriving later this year.
An extra £300,000 a year is being spent on leasing the faster chopper, which will take to the skies in the summer, on top of a new training centre which has just been built for the service.
The upgrades are huge step forward for Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire Air Ambulance, which relies solely on donations and gets no consistent official funding.
Based at RAF Waddington, Lincolnshire, the crew flies hundreds of missions across Nottinghamshire and the region every year helping to save countless lives.
Air ambulance paramedic Neil Clarke said: “We’ll have a bigger aircraft meaning there will be a lot more we can do from a patient treatment point of view. It’s also quicker, and the main thing is, it can hold more fuel meaning we can stay in the air for longer.”
Pilot Paul Smith said: “The rural aspect of the patch is very important. It’s a big area 3,400 square miles, and quite a lot of access issues.
“If you have suffered a really serious trauma then we’ll take you to a major trauma centre, which, for example, could mean going from Skegness to the QMC in Nottingham, that’s a long way by road. That’s why access to a helicopter can be really important.”
Video: Watch the team in action using the current helicopter
The new model will be an AW169, a twin-engine helicopter manufactured by anglo-Italian firm AgustaWestland.
Each mission run by the service costs £2,000 and at least three are flown per day, with annual running costs at £1.9m, which will rise to around £2.2m once the new helicopter arrives.
