The county of Wiltshire has been without its own air ambulance for approximately 20 days.
Wiltshire Air Ambulance’s yellow and green helicopter was last seen online around 7 October and has since disappeared offline.
Whilst the charity’s critical care medics will still be attending emergency calls in their rapid response vehicle (RRV), the lack of helicopter can understandably slow their response time.
It’s thought the aircraft could be grounded for servicing, maintenance or repair work but the charity has not provided any public updates.
As standard practice, neighbouring air ambulance charities have been picking up the slack over the past two weeks.
On 15 October, Hampshire and Isle of Wight Air Ambulance responded to a tank incident on Salisbury Plain which claimed the life of 23-year-old soldier Private Jethro Watson-Pickering.
And on Saturday (23 October), Dorset and Somerset Air Ambulance flew to the north of the county when a driver suffered a cardiac arrest at the wheel of his car near Malmesbury.
It’s understood the patient was airlifted to Southmead Hospital in Bristol.
In a post on Facebook on 25 October, the charity wrote: “Last week we were tasked to 18 incidents, in and around Devizes, Malmesbury, Marlborough, Melksham, Royal Wootton Bassett, Salisbury, Swindon, Trowbridge, Warminster, Westbury, Bath, Gloucestershire and Somerset.”
It’s believed all 18 calls were responded to using RRVs, rather than the helicopter.
Wiltshire Air Ambulance was approached for comment.
