600 patients transferred to UK by air ambulance in last year

More than £2 million spent transporting people

More than £2 million has been spent running the air ambulance service in the last financial year.

The Department of Health and Social Care says it costs around £4,000 to transport each patient to the UK for hospital treatment.

The figures have been released in response to a Tynwald question posed by Rushen MHK, and Speaker of the House of Keys, Juan Watterson.

He wanted to know the total cost of operating the service in 2023-2024 and how value for money is assessed.

Six-hundred patient transfers, for people who can’t use commercial transport, were completed up to February this year.

This represented an expenditure of £2,382,000.

Of these transfers:

• 27% were priority one and two requiring time critical, immediately life or limb saving or urgent transfer
• 60% were priority three which required same day transfer
• 13% were priority four which required a planned transfer within days of request

The air ambulance service is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, due to its contract with an aviation service provider.

It’s supported by a Manx Care air ambulance coordinator with air ambulance doctors also available 24/7 to join transfer practitioners for critical care transfers.

Despite significant inflationary pressures, major incidents and increasing demand on the services over the last six years the DHSC says the average cost per transfer has remained steady.

This, it says, has been achieved by continuous improvement to service efficiency which has focussed on making best use of contracted hours and already committed flying hours.

You can find out more HERE.