Local air ambulance remains as busy as ever in 2024
In 2023, Magpas Air Ambulance experienced a 42% increase in activations compared to the previous year. Now, new figures from the charity show that this demand has continued throughout 2024, as their lifesaving medical teams responded to 1,872 emergencies across 10 counties in and around the East of England last year.
Incidents in Cambridgeshire, including Peterborough and surrounding areas, accounted for 61% of all Magpas Air Ambulance’s activations.
As every one of the charity’s clinicians is trained in Pre-Hospital Emergency Medicine, they provide advanced medical care (above that of a standard land ambulance) at the scene of a patient’s incident, and are only called to the most critically ill or injured patients in the area.
With incidents in Cambridgeshire increasing by 9% compared to the previous year, the need for Magpas Air Ambulance, the Cambridgeshire-based charity, is clear. Life-threatening medical emergencies such as cardiac arrests remained the number one reason for activation, followed by patients injured in road traffic collisions, accounting for 66% of the service’s emergency call outs combined.
Of the 600+ patients Magpas Air Ambulance treated in cardiac arrest, 68% of them had been given bystander CPR prior to the emergency team’s arrival—something the charity is working hard to increase through its CPR and defibrillator training sessions.
Magpas Air Ambulance also continued to see more men than women, with 60% of patients treated being male. And they were called to an average of two critically ill or injured children a week.
As well as responding to almost 1,900 emergency calls in 2024, the charity also welcomed a new Magpas Air Ambulance helicopter last year and is taking delivery of three new rapid response vehicles in the next month—helping the team continue to deliver 24/7 lifesaving care to the people of Cambridgeshire, Bedfordshire and across the East of England. Natalie Church, Magpas Air Ambulance Director of Operations, explains “It’s clear from the 2024 figures that the demand for our service, that grew so exponentially the year before, is here to stay. Our clinicians have worked extremely hard, around the clock, to ensure that we can reach every patient who needs the advanced care we provide.
“The Magpas Air Ambulance team were called to five life-threatening incidents a day on average. But it’s important to remember that behind every statistic is a person whose life is on the line and it’s the incredible Magpas Air Ambulance medical team who make crucial differences for those patients every day.
“As a charity, Magpas Air Ambulance can only continue to be there 24/7 thanks to the donations and support from the communities we serve. Visit magpas.org.uk to find out more, and help us continue to save lives and keep families together this year.”