When my late and still much missed friend Graham Budden was one of G-HEMS pilots - off the roof of the Royal London in Daily Express times - I invited him to come to my Scout Troop to tell my then kids about HEMS.
He brought photographs of and told the story to one of the busiest days HEMS had flown to that time.
Nine 'shouts' to points all over London out as far as the M25. I believe he was PNF (is that right? Pilot Not Flying?) that day and just happened to have his camera. No blood and gore, just images of G-HEMS parked in outlandish places around the capital.
Along with his story of the day, told with his characteristic stutter (or is it stammer, I never knew the difference) which mysteriously disappeared when wearing 'the cans', my Scouts were spellbound. To them he was a real, live hero and not far short of that for me, even though I had known him since he was a Scout.
The point being that, he was at great pains to correct the common (then and now) misapprehension that G-HEMS was an 'Air Ambulance'. Because they carried Doctors, surgical instruments and all the bells and whistles of 'battlefield surgery', they were and are a mobile primary treatment service. Although there were operational reasons why they did not often do so, the
main reason why they seldom carried their casualties back to 'The Whitechapel', was because the HEMS medics had stabilised their injuries, prepared them for transport and left them for the 'regular' LAS to take them to the nearest appropriate hospital by road.
Graham never lost sight of the fact that his job, as driver of the 'H' part of the team, was to get the 'EMS' part to the scene quicker than any road vehicle could do. Public opinion is not always right. Sometimes they are so completely wrong it is little wonder that decision makers ignore them. But when it comes to HEMS and even Police ASUs, they
know instinctively that helicopters are the dog's bo11ocks.
Roger.