It has always been the vision of the Wales Air Ambulance to offer a 24/7 service. The new service will ensure that pre-hospital critical care is available Wales-wide 24 hours a day. Over the past few years, we have analysed the unmet need across 24 hours to identify incidents that:

• we were unable to attend due to being outside of operational hours.
  
  
• took place within operational hours but we were unable to attend due to already being tasked.

 

This analysis found that:

• There is a need for an extended air ambulance service overnight. There were approximately 990 cases of ‘unmet need’ between the hours of 8pm and 8am over a 12-month period.
  
  
• There is a particular increase in demand between 3pm and midnight. This is most prevalent in South East Wales.
  
  
• Life and limb-threatening incidents between 8pm and 8am are currently managed by the Welsh Ambulance Service. In these cases, EMRTS/Wales Air Ambulance is not available to support with its ED-standard treatments.
  
  
• For safety reasons, the Civil Aviation Authority introduce more restrictions when flying in the hours of darkness. Any ‘after dark’ service would need to consider this and find the safest and most effective way of using aircraft to support the service’s Rapid Response Vehicles.