KENT SURREY SUSSEX AIR AMBULANCE

[nomorehelosforme]

A short Doctors insight to the Kent Surrey Sussex Air Ambulance as it celebrates its 30th annivesary
.Air Ambulance Kent Surrey Sussex: 'It's the best job in the world'The air ambulance service for Kent, Surrey and Sussex is celebrating its 30th birthday.

The service has attended 30,000 incidents over three decades.

It costs £14m to run annually, 89% of which comes from donations and fundraising.

https://www.bbc.com/news/av/uk-england-50830553/air-ambulance-kent-surrey-sussex-it-s-the-best-job-in-the-world

[helicrazi]

So why cant SAS fill the P1 vacancy?

[Bravo73]

Because they offer £53k?

[helicrazi]

Because they offer £53k?

That's a damn good reason!

[[email protected]]

Yes, I wonder what the Chief Exec earns...

[homonculus]

If my failing memory serves me right, initially it just Kent air ambulance. The annual budget was under £1m

Even by healthcare standards, and allowing for the greater geographical coverage, the budget increase is eyewatering. The NHS budget over that time has increased 'only' threefold

[Northernstar]

Richest hems charity in U.K. apparently. Hence 3 airframes being paid for and a 24 hour service. Yet pilot recruitment and retention are issues. But when the enlarged new management team are swanning around attending AAA dinners and celebrating their supposed greatness surely the company is cash rich, no?

[[email protected]]

Does this not seem to be the modus operandi for many of these charities - the public donate to provide the crews and aircraft, then the management create extra management and fundraising positions yet vacancies remain in the cockpit because they salaries for the pilots are far less than the management?

Self-licking lollipop comes to mind.

[mmitch]

The London Air Ambulance costa about £7.9M for 24 hour cover of Greater London with I believe 2 helicopters plus cars.
mmitch.

[jayteeto]

You pay peanuts you get either monkeys or pilots who accept low wages for location. That second pool is shrinking fast

[MINself]

Sadly location and enjoyment of a career or operator change wears off very quickly when you realise how under paid you are for the skills demanded. As one who walked away from HEMS a few years ago due T&Cs and wanting to better my financial position for my family, the decision was difficult due to the people working in HEMS, but I like so many before realise that good work has to appreciated with better salaries, or people walk away, or worse become disgruntled and stay!
IMHO The low salaries are a throw back to when many ex-military pilots had pensions to lean on, unfortunately the salaries haven’t kept pace with the increasingly technical role. My advice to a new FO joining with minimum hours was to think about an exit strategy to the next better flying job, as the likelihood of gaining enough hours for command before 10 years was unlikely.

[helipixman]

The pilot and crew in my opinion are never paid enough for the dangerous missions they undertake and save lives ! I have never understood why they are all funded by charity donations in England and Wales, up here in Scotland they are funded by the NHS directly. Scotland has two helicopters which are about to be replaced in early 2020 and additionally two Beechcraft Super King Air fixed wing aircraft.

The two new helicopters EC145s are G-ISAS (guess this one for Inverness) and G-GSAS (Glasgow) both will be yellow scheme and Gama the operators will have a spare heli G-GMAH painted Grey ! In addition to this we do have a charity air ambulance helicopter based at Perth but not sure what missions this operates ?

[Northernstar]

Are Gama and Babcock paying more than Specialist who operate KSS?

[Bravo73]

Are Gama and Babcock paying more than Specialist who operate KSS?

I don’t know what Gama are offering but judging by how long the positions have remained vacant, it’s not enough.

Babcock have historically paid a little bit more than SAS (just). But they have recently issued new pay scales which top out at £80k.

[Brutal]

Top out at 80K? But where do they start?
B.

[helicrazi]

Top out at 80K? But where do they start?
B.

from what I understand its 62 ish

[Brutal]

Ah, now I see why they are struggling to attract and retain pilots...An SFO with 3000 hours starting on the N.Sea will get around 75/6 ish with (depending on the company) 8% matched pension and NO night shifts! I know that the N.Sea is not everyones cuppa but c'mon. Corporate also way up there with the wages. The worst thing about the whole HEMS is they have gone from traditionally, day vfr, to day/night, nvg etc etc and not adjusted the wages accordingly? As one suggested, lower wages have been propped up with military pensions before now, but that's coming to an end.
B.

[helicrazi]

Full? Really? I'm surprised by that as there are north sea operators looking for p2s and they pay 'slightly' more than £30k

[ApolloHeli]

Full? Really? I'm surprised by that as there are north sea operators looking for p2s and they pay 'slightly' more than £30k
Interested to hear which operators you're mentioning? I've been hearing that fresh out of the IR with 250 hours won't get you any P2 roles.

[Bravo73]

I've been hearing that fresh out of the IR with 250 hours won't get you any P2 roles.

Only if the operator is fully OGP compliant. (OGP P2 requirement is either 500hrs or an ab-initio course). Some operators/customers aren’t OGP.

[helihub]

Richest hems charity in U.K. apparently.

Not quite true. If you are looking at income it's #3 and if you are looking at cash in the bank, it's #2