Kent Air Ambulance Week: September 11 - September 17

NEXT week is Kent Air Ambulance Week - only the second event of its kind.

Last year’s inaugural event, brought in by Kent Air Ambulance chief executive David Philpott, proved so successful, it has become a permanent feature in the charity’s calendar.

The aim of the week, which runs from Monday, September 11, to Sunday, September 17, is to raise awareness of the work of the charity - which receives no government, lottery or NHS funding and relies entirely on donations.

The Marden-based air ambulance has flown more than 10,000 missions since its launch in 1992 and has to raise £100,000 each month to keep airborne.

The charity has continued to pioneer and bring in changes since last year’s event.

Following a six-month trial, it has become the first air ambulance in the country, outside London, to introduce doctors to its team, joining the pilots, paramedics and nurses, who fly missions across the county.

Research by the trust found having doctors on board had made a dramatic difference to the care of trauma patients during the so-called golden hour for emergency treatment as patients are transported to A&E.

The charity has also launched a separate fund-raising initiative to provide a second air ambulance to cover East and West Sussex and Surrey.

And it has invested in £100,000 worth of extra state-of-the-art technology on board the helicopter, including a defibrillator.

Mr Philpott said: "The week went very well last year in terms of the awareness that it gave us.

"It was a learning curve, but it was also a big success. It isn’t about fund-raising. If we keep telling the story of what we do, and keep in the public domain, the clubs and groups which raise money for us will keep raising money and they do it so much better than we ever could."

* For a special report on the air ambulance’s work, its team and some of the people it has helped, see next week’s Kent Messenger.