AN Air Ambulance service which works to help save lives across the South West has detailed the extent of its work during August.  

Having flown its first mission on August 27, 1992, Devon Air Ambulance has been working to support those who have suffered serious accidents or illness and require need specialist treatment fast.  

Air ambulance doctors and paramedics are able to reach patients at speed – working to assist in Devon, Cornwall, Sommerset and Dorset - identifying their time-critical needs and provide specialist life-saving treatments and interventions to slow, halt or even reverse the effects of a life-threatening condition.  

Now, the organisation has detailed the extent of its attendance during August 2024.  

During the month, the team was tasked to a total of 215 incidents where people urgently needed the emergency assistance of the ‘Critical Care Team’.  

Helicopters were deployed a massive 146 times, critical care cars, 66 times and the Volunteer Responder Team was also called to help on three occasions. 

Of these incidents, twenty of them saw teams travel over borders.  

A spokesperson for the charity said: “We were tasked to 53 per cent trauma emergencies and 46 per cent medical emergencies. Some of these took us across our county borders as we were tasked to respond to 10 patients in Somerset, five in Cornwall and five in Dorset. We attended 63.4 per cent male patients and 36.6 per cent female.”  

They also explained that Saturdays were the busiest day of the week for the team, having been tasked to a total of 28 missions. The spokesperson added: “Please do take extra care when enjoying your well earned leisure time.” 

Among the most common incidents the teams were tasked to were road traffic collisions (RTC) with RTC’s accounting for 31 call outs.  

The spokesperson continued: “Sadly, we were tasked to 31 Road Traffic Collisions - please allow plenty of time for your journey and arrive safely. 

“We were tasked to 26 missions in the hours of darkness and the hospital we visited most was the University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust Derriford.”