The East Anglian Air Ambulance has announced that the charity’s Chief Executive Simon Gray will be leaving the charity at the end of January 2011. Andrew Egerton-Smith, Chairman of the charity’s board of trustees, commented: “We’re hugely indebted to Simon for the commitment he has shown to making the charity one of the most effective air ambulance services in the country.

“He has made a particularly outstanding contribution to the development of the air ambulance service in our region. The charity has made great progress under his leadership and has just celebrated its tenth anniversary.”

Simon Gray will be taking up a new role with the Association of Air Ambulances (AAA), subject to ratification at its forthcoming AGM. The AAA is the representative body for all 18 air ambulance charities in England and Wales.

The trustees recognise the workload and commitment that will be required for this new role and have granted him leave to assist him in preparing for this new challenge. Simon’s Deputy, Steve Whitby, will take on additional responsibilities while the trustees begin the search for a new chief executive.

Andrew Egerton-Smith added: “The EAAA is about to enter a new and exciting phase as we’ll shortly be launching our new, enhanced service, developed with the full support of the East of England Ambulance Trust, to ensure we have NHS doctors on board both of our aircraft.

As an example, we will for the first time, be able to staff both Anglia One and Anglia Two on Christmas Day – though we sincerely hope that no-one will require their services.

We’ve been working towards this for some time. It will ensure that we can help save more lives in the region and ensure better outcomes for many other victims of medical emergencies and accidents.”