Busiest year ever for air ambulance serving Aylesbury Vale and Milton Keynes with over 3,000 callouts

The air ambulance serving Aylesbury Vale and Milton Keynes has reported its busiest year on record in 2022. For the first time since becoming an independent healthcare charity, Thames Valley Air Ambulance attended more than 3,000 callouts in a single year.

That’s nearly 10 per cent up on the previous year’s total (2,880) for the charity which attends emergencies across Berks, Bucks and Oxon.

Critical care paramedics and doctors were called to 1,161 incidents in Berkshire, 1,086 in Buckinghamshire, 818 in Oxfordshire and 93 in the surrounding area.

Cardiac arrest accounted for the highest percentage of callouts for the year at 34 per cent (1,069 callouts), followed by medical emergencies at 21 per cent (663 callouts), accidental injury at 16 per cent (519 callouts) and road traffic collisions 14 per cent (430 callouts).

This reflects our findings in 2021, with cardiac arrests amounting to the most callouts followed by medical emergencies, accidental injury and road traffic collisions.

The busiest month of the year was December, with crews called to attend 305 incidents, followed by 276 in November and 275 in June.

Chief operating officer Adam Panter said: “2022 was incredibly busy for our crews for a number of reasons, including the impact of our communities returning to full and active lives.

"In addition to this, we are working hard to identify the cases which would benefit most from our crews’ expertise earlier, and therefore dispatching our critical care teams to more of them.

“Answering 3,158 callouts is testament to their professionalism and the whole team at Thames Valley Air Ambulance supporting their lifesaving efforts.

"But this simply couldn’t happen without the community we serve. Without their generous donations of funds and volunteering time, we wouldn’t be able to make the difference we do. Thank you.”

For a map of where Thames Valley Air Ambulance’s callouts took place, visit www.tvairambulance.org.uk/mission-map

Thames Valley Air Ambulance helps people in a medical emergency 365 days a year, giving them the best chance of surviving and recovering. It does not receive regular government or National Lottery funding.