Coronavirus: Air ambulance services across the South adapt

Air ambulance services across the South have adapted during the coronavirus pandemic to help colleagues on the road.

Aircraft are flying in to treat the injured, while road ambulances take stabilised patients to hospital.

Hampshire Air Ambulance medics used a military aircraft to transfer a ventilated patient, for the first time in April.

A chinook successfully transported a critically ill patient from Jersey to Southampton General Hospital.

At 100 feet long, the chopper is safe and can easily keep ventilated coronavirus patients separate from pilots.

  • Alex Lochrane, Chief Executive, Hampshire & Isle of Wight Air Ambulance

Dr Simon Hughes was an experienced crew member during that first night flight from Jersey.

Dr Hughes spent 16 years in the RAF working on the helicopter and field hospitals in Afghanistan and Iraq.

He said: "There's a lot to concentrate on while looking after a critically ill patient. The chinook is noisy, there's lots of vibration and the lighting is obscured."

  • Dr Simon Hughes, Hampshire & Isle of Wight Air Ambulance

As a result of the new link with the military, patients in Hampshire can be transferred over water from the Isle of Wight or the Channel Islands.

Meanwhile, the Kent Surrey Sussex charity will use one of their own aircraft to move patients with Covid-19 to hospitals with capacity.

Like the Chinook, the AW169 is large enough to segregate the pilots.

Dr Richard Lyon, Kent, Surrey & Sussex Air Ambulance said: "If you're in a hospital in East Kent for example and your nearest ICU bed is in London, it's really important you have the transport to get to the specialist centre."

Sophie the Countess of Wessex is the patron of the Thames Valley Air Ambulance.

She talked with staff and crew and thanked them for helping during the pandemic.

She said: "Thank you all. When we clap on a Thursday, we think of you too."

The Wiltshire charity is deploying some paramedics to the new Nightingale hospital in Bristol.

Meanwhile, Somerset and Dorset say they have enough missions to continue to operate as normal.

  • Watch the full report by Sally Simmonds: