Scotland’s Charity Air Ambulance (SCAA) has reported its busiest year since operations began.
As Scotland came out of lockdown, emergency call outs for the charity dramatically increased from the previous year.
At SCAA’s airbases in Aberdeen and Perth, crews were deployed 810 times during 2021 in a 76% increase from the previous year.
These call outs included a record number of seriously ill or injured patients from across Scottish mainland and many of its islands who had to be flown quickly to receive advanced hospital care. A total of 333 people were airlifted by SCAA.
Almost three quarters of these had to be flown to Scotland’s four Major Trauma Centres at Aberdeen, Glasgow, Dundee and Edinburgh. Traumatic injury cases made up 40% of 2021’s call outs showing a 49% increase from previous years. The majority of these were due to road traffic collisions which accounted for 17% of total deployments from the year.
Other trauma emergencies included falls, industrial accidents and equestrian-related injuries. SCAA crews also attended calls relating to cardiac related emergencies and strokes.
A total 0f 160 of these missions involved transferring critically ill patients from remote or island locations. During the year, 27% of the total call outs were also attended by paramedics travelling across land in their Rapid Response Vehicles.
Important ‘life-saving’ work
Now in its ninth year of operation, the charity is run and funded entirely by donations from the public.
The charity’s chief executive David Craig said the charity-funded helicopter air ambulances and crews perform a vital role in a filling the increased demand for pre-hospital emergency care. Despite busyness being expected after the country eased out of lockdown, Mr Craig said the demand on the charity’s services have been “considerable”.
He said: “The fact that three quarters of our airlifted patients were flown to one of the country’s four Major Trauma Centres shows the high-acuity trauma our crews are dealing with.
“SCAA’s speed and level of care have proven to be life-saving and our crews’ impressive work – during another challenging year – has seen us delivering more emergency care than ever before which reflects the demand for our service.”
Thanks to the donations from the public, SCAA was enabled to be online 12 hours a day throughout the whole of 2021 at both Aberdeen and Perth bases. David Craig is grateful for the support the charity received throughout a challenging year.
“It’s been a trying year for everyone,” he said “but our amazing supporters kept the charity in their hearts throughout, with their ongoing generosity enabling SCAA to take more care, more quickly to more people throughout the whole of Scotland than ever before.”