Air ambulance launches new emergency response team in Luton

An air ambulance charity is introducing a specialist response team to serve the Luton area at weekends.

The Magpas medics will operate from a specialist road vehicle, which the charity claims will "shave vital minutes" off response times.

The new service will be on call between 6pm and 6.30am on Friday and Saturday nights, when demand is expected to be highest.

Read more: Magpas Air Ambulance "humbled" by donations of PPE

Magpas CEO Daryl Brown said the team getting to patients sooner could save lives.

He said: "Magpas attend some of the sickest patients. These are patients that need the hospital coming to the scene of the incidents.

"That can be out of hospital cardiac arrests, RTCs, anything that involves trauma, and we see a lot of that in and around Luton and Bedfordshire sadly.

"If we can shave those vital minutes off and get to those patients quicker some of them will survive that haven’t survived previously and that’s really important."

The new service aims to improve response times by up to 40 minutes on average, with the vehicle based in Luton itself.

Andy Smith, Clinical Operations Manager and Critical Care Paramedic, said it offers much more than a regular ambulance.

"In order to deliver an extra level of care to Luton, the new Magpas rapid response vehicle will be equipped with lifesaving equipment and drugs; the majority of which are not carried by standard land ambulances", he said.

"This means our local presence in Luton will not only assist the existing ambulance service, but enhance the standard of emergency care available, saving even more lives and keeping families together in Luton, Dunstable, Bedford and across the whole county of Bedfordshire.”