About
EAAA delivers outstanding out-of-hospital, critical care to patients via rapid response vehicle (RRV) and helicopter for 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. It is a large and highly sophisticated operation, and has come a long way from its relatively humble beginnings in 2000.
It employs over 100 people plus many others including paramedics who are seconded from EEAST (East of England Ambulance Service Trust), pilots who are employed by Babcock and all of the highly valued 250+ volunteers. Activities are highly regulated, and it is a complex organisation.
EAAA’s core operation is to transport a highly capable clinical team to the side of seriously ill or injured patients as quickly as possible to stabilise them and administer life-saving interventions on scene before seeing them transported to the most appropriate hospital. Clinical teams have at least one highly qualified doctor specialised in pre-hospital emergency medicine and a critical care paramedic. Sometimes the team has three clinicians, doubling up the doctor or paramedic with supervisors. This proves especially useful in multi-casualty situations.
Tasked solely by EEAST, EAAA responds across Norfolk, Suffolk, Cambridgeshire and Bedfordshire from bases at Norwich Airport and Cambridge City Airport. The charity is an intrinsic part of the response of this emergency service, significantly contributing to the treatment of the most serious 1% of 999 calls.
The helicopters are flown by a two-pilot crew and this part of the service is contracted from Babcock on a turnkey contract. As this contract constitutes a significant proportion of total expenditure, it is a key partnership. Teams use either the helicopter or RRV, whichever is optimal for the mission depending on a range of factors including travel time to the patient, weather and availability.
After treatment at scene, patients are transported to the most appropriate, but not necessarily the nearest, hospital by the most suitable method, which may be by road. Most are accompanied by the EAAA clinicians. EAAA typically undertakes over 3,000 missions (over eight per day, or just over two per shift on average) and treats over 1,800 patients every year.
In recent years the charity has extended operations into specialist life support training of the public and clinical professionals using the extensive experience built of treating cardiac arrest patients. The plan is to expand this work, thereby improving the chances of cardiac arrest patients surviving long enough for EAAA to travel to them and make a difference to their long-term quality of life.
The aftercare team is a recent addition, supporting patients and their families in the aftermath of their life changing incident. Demand for this now essential service is increasing all the time. EAAA is increasingly active in the field of medical research in an effort to contribute knowledge and experience to the pre-hospital medical community and find ways to improve patient outcomes.
