Wiltshire’s dedicated air ambulance helicopter will be out of action for up to three weeks.
The Bell 429 GlobalRanger aircraft flew into Thruxton Airfield, near Andover, on 3 October for its annual service – forcing medics to use cars to race to 999 calls instead.
Unlike most other air ambulance charities, Wiltshire Air Ambulance (WAA) does not have access to a spare medical helicopter to make use of in the meantime.
This means that the county is without a dedicated helicopter emergency medical service (HEMS) aircraft to respond to serious emergencies or airlift patients to hospital.
The charity says it is still responding to emergency calls in two rapid response vehicles (RRV) – and it can call upon neighbouring air ambulances for further support as required.
On Friday (7 October), the yellow Volvo RRV was seen attending a life-threateneing medical incident in County Road, Swindon. Despite medics’ efforts, the patient died at the scene.
Earlier today (11 October), the RRV responded to reports of a motorcyclist colliding with a road side and sustaining serious injuries near it’s base in Semington.
