An air ambulance service is working hard to deliver life-saving care 24/7, 365 days a year.

Essex and Herts Air Ambulance (EHAAT) has upgraded its service to provide 24/7 care, using rapid response vehicles at night in conjunction with the service’s two helicopters during the day.

With the expanded coverage, comes further costs, and the charity – which receives no regular government funding – is appealing for your help to continue its life-saving work.

The average cost of an EHAAT mission is £2,200; in 2018 the service responded to 2,132 missions.

East London and West Essex Guardian Series:

EHAA helicopter. Photo: Lewis Berrill

East London and West Essex Guardian Series:

New rapid response vehicle. Photo: Lewis Berrill

Total costs for all operations and initiatives total £9 million every year.

The charity, which is supported by a team of 360 volunteers, holds over 600 fundraisers across the year.

EHAAT air ambulance medical teams are specially trained to respond to the most severe incidents.

Chris Keeliher, a critical care paramedic on a three-year secondment, joined the team in May 2017.

East London and West Essex Guardian Series:

Chris Keeliher. Photo: Lewis Berrill

It has always been an ambition of his to work for a HEMS unit Helicopter Emergency Medical Service) as he believes is the pinnacle of emergency care.

He said: “To be able to work in this kind of environment with the doctors here who are incredibly knowledgeable, with the pilots who keep us very safe, it’s kind of a different environment to what you are used to as a paramedic and the experience you get here is amazing.

“The exposure to the type of jobs, the knowledge that you then learn from working in these difficult scenarios, it’s so different to anywhere else. That was my drive to join a HEMS unit – to become a better clinician.”

Paramedics rotate through the service every three years, to help keeps idea fresh, but to also bring knowledge learnt in EHAAT back into the ambulance service where it can be disseminated.

Pre-hospital care doctor, Davinder Cheema, who has only been with the team for two months, said: “Sometimes you might go to incidents which are quite frankly horrific.

East London and West Essex Guardian Series:

Davinder Cheema. Photo: Lewis Berrill

“You will be adrenalized, those around you, your immediate team, members of the public, family, everyone’s’ emotions will be high everyone’s adrenaline will be high but it is up to you to maintain that calm and pass that sense of calm onto fellow team members and bystanders. If that adrenalized side of you comes out that can cause more issues and make the scene more chaotic.”

A HEMS team consists of two pilots, a pre-hospital care doctor and a critical care paramedic.

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Jim Moonie. Photo: Lewis Berrill

Paramedic Jim Moonie, added: “Everyone who does to this job comes to it with quite a lot of prior experience, not necessarily working in such highly emotive environments as you experience sometimes in this job, but seeing people who are critically injured and dying, so it’s not something that we are completely fresh to which would make it a potentially traumatic experience.

“The training on the job, there are a lot of courses and an extended sign up period where you work with other doctors who have been doing the job for some time. Although there are some highly emotive scenes everyone is fairly calm on the job. We do regular simulations, with courses designed to help deal with as pressurised and complex situations as can be artificially created.”

The team can reach the furthest parts of Essex of Hertfordshire in under 20 minutes thanks to skilled pilots such as Sam Tompkins.

East London and West Essex Guardian Series:

Sam Tompkins. Photo: Lewis Berrill

Sam, who joined the ambulance service at 18 and worked through to a technician level, says his role as a pilot has allowed him to combine his two passions, flying and critical care, into one “dream job.”

Has been flying helicopters for 15 years now, having originally sold his house and spent £100,000 of his own money to learn how to fly.

He said: “You have to be experienced to do this job. It’s not run of the mill. We don’t know where we are going when the phone rings, you have to be able to adapt very quickly and manage the situation in the calmest and safest way possible.

EHAAT will make use of a one-off grant of £1.5 million from the Government to help pay for a new airbase in North Weald, which will cost around £4.5 million.

Construction of the building will begin next year and is scheduled to be complete during Winter 2020.