The Children’s Air Ambulance is delighted to announce to all our supporters that our dream of providing a national bespoke helicopter transfer service for seriously ill children is soon to be a reality.

Nicola Howkins said: “This progress is really exciting news and thanks to a new partnership with the team behind the Warwickshire & Northamptonshire Air Ambulance (WNAA) and sister service, Derbyshire Leicestershire & Rutland Air Ambulance (DLRAA).”

WNAA and DLRAA (now under the umbrella organisation The Air Ambulance Service) has taken over The Children’s Air Ambulance, who will provide a national bespoke helicopter transfer service moving them safely and quickly between hospitals for specialist care next year.

WNAA and DLRAA are already the busiest Air Ambulances in the country; carrying out more than 220 life changing and lifesaving missions a month. This year WNAA celebrated the eighth anniversary of the launch of the service and won the Orange Business 2011 Award for Transformational Change.

Andy Williamson, WNAA CEO said: “As the busiest Air Ambulance in the country, we know how important it is for patients to receive the highest standards of specialist medical care. There are hundreds of critically ill children every year who need the advanced care and time critical transfers to specialist children’s hospital units.

“Getting a child to a specialist care centre by land can involve long and frequently medically challenging travel times putting a child at risk while causing untold stress to the family. In taking over The Children’s Air Ambulance we will not only be able to make this air transfer service an operational reality but also increase survival by helping to reduce travel times and move specialist NHS clinical teams with the child quickly.”