Air Ambulance for Northern Ireland

Why has Northern Ireland not got an air ambulance when the rest of the UK has? Well, the answer is simple - statistically we do not need one, as the hard working Northern Ireland Ambulance Service meets it’s required targets in relation to emergency calls and patient transfers.

However, wouldn’t it be great if they had that additional “tool in their box” that assisted them when it was difficult to achieve the target due to conditions outside of their control - heavy traffic (possibly due to the road traffic accident that they are heading to), public events or areas that are difficult to access directly by road for example?

The air ambulance organisations in the rest of the UK had to put their cases forward in much the same way as is now happening in Northern Ireland, and were met with more or less the same arguments against having one. Anyone who has watched the various real life documentaries on television about these organisations will know when an air ambulance really comes into its own and when it can be an aid to the everyday medical/surgical activities of the local ambulance service.

With the right structures in place for fundraising (an average of only £1 per head per year from the population of Northern Ireland would generate an annual income of around £1,775,000 alone, based on the most recent statistics from NISRA in 2008) along with a realistic business plan and structure an air ambulance for Northern Ireland is a viable and realistic possibility.