Scotland's Charity Air Ambulance records record-breaking year in 2022
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SCOTLAND'S Charity Air Ambulance recorded another record-breakingly busy year in 2022.
Now into its 10th year, SCAA continues to attend more and more life-critical emergencies across the north of Scotland from its bases at Aberdeen and Perth airports.
In 2022, the country's sole charity air ambulance service responded to 967 call outs – a 19 per cent increase on 2021.
SCAA plays a vital role in getting paramedics and specialist teams quickly to the scene of serious illness and injury, providing life-saving care in the air and transferring patients onwards to the appropriate hospital.
Reflecting on another record year, SCAA Chief Executive David Craig said it was now "unthinkable" to imagine a pre-hospital service network in Scotland without the charity.
"The growing reliance on SCAA, working closely with the Scottish Ambulance Service, shows what a vital role the charity plays in saving and improving lives in Scotland," he said.
"Thousands of patients across the whole of Scotland and its many islands owe their life to the fast intervention of SCAA.
"The demand on our service has never been greater and our crews continue to respond impressively to deliver more emergency care year on year.
"Our record deployment to high-acuity trauma and time-critical illness shows the demanding role our teams fulfil day in and day out.
"Their speed and level of care have proven to be life-saving for so many."
Newly-released figures show that the charity airlifted more patents than ever before to, often critical, hospital care – up 8 per cent.
At 38 per cent of cases, traumatic injury continues to dominate SCAA's workload, and nearly two-thirds of all airlifted patients were flown to one of Scotland's four major trauma centres in Aberdeen, Dundee, Glasgow or Edinburgh.
Using both helicopter air ambulances and Rapid Response Vehicles at both bases, SCAA has seen a sharp increase in the number of emergency call outs to road traffic collisions (187).
In 2022, these accounted for more than half of all trauma cases and showed an increase of 39 per cent on the previous year.
Other trauma emergencies attended included falls (94), industrial accidents (26) and equestrian-related injuries (21).
During 2022, SCAA's helicopters airlifted advanced medical teams directly to the scene of 134 emergencies, delivering critical care as quickly as possible to those most in need.
SCAA was also deployed to a record number of cardiac (up 35 per cent) and stroke (up 73 per cent) patients last year where speed proved critical.
More than130 vulnerable patients were transferred from remote or island communities to advanced mainland hospital care throughout the year.
SCAA saw the number of hours flown by Helimed 76 (Perth) and Helimed 79 (Aberdeen) to missions in every corner of the country increase by more than seven per cent, with more than 700 hours in the air covering nearly 92,000 miles.
As SCAA marks its 10th anniversary, David Craig praised the generosity of the people of Scotland who continue to fund the service.
"Throughout those 10 years, our supporters have kept SCAA in their hearts and contributed magnificently to ensure we were there for those most in need," he added.
"With their ongoing generosity, SCAA will continue to respond to an ever-increasing workload throughout 2023 and beyond."
