Two of the counties covered by the new Ambulance Trust (Great Western) already have perfectly sensible air ambulances with an established fundraising setup.
Agreed. I'm fascinated to see how they'll sell the concept to the people of Wiltshire. How does this sound: take away a HEMS service based in near-enough the geographical centre of the county, operating between the hours of 0830 and 0245 (allowing time to check the aircraft/ put it to bed) at a cost of 30% of the running costs of the police heli (yet using up to 50% of the flying hours). Replace it with an aircraft based below a ridgeline to the west of the county which operates daylight hours only (although it might be able to extend to night landings, albeit only at suitably-lit hospital sites.
NOT HEMS sites as at present) and covers 2 other counties as well. The person who can spin
this little story successfully should be able to work for any
PR agency in the world afterward.
