The Association of Air Ambulances (AAA), which represents the majority of air ambulance operations in the UK, is delighted to announce that Air Ambulance Northern Ireland and the Northern Ireland Ambulance Service Health and Social Care Trust have both joined the Association as full members.

This means that the AAA now represents 20 air ambulance charities, 13 ambulance services and 37 of the Helicopter Emergency Medical Service (HEMS) aircraft in operation across the UK.

Full members are ambulance services and air ambulance charities that are committed to ethical fundraising, collaboration, have a unified vision of improving patient outcomes and abide by the Association’s Code of Conduct. All members can access a tailor made range of benefits, services, information and resources, together with statistics and clear guidance on improved charitable, operational and clinical best practice.

Clive Dickin, National Director of the AAA, said: “We are absolutely delighted to have both Air Ambulance Northern Ireland and the Northern Ireland Ambulance Service Health and Social Care Trust join our membership. The AAA’s strategy is to improve patient treatment through shared knowledge and collaboration, so to see the Association’s membership grow to reflect almost the entire UK HEMS network is a real tick in the box for patient care.”

Ian Crowe, Chairman of Air Ambulance Northern Ireland said: “I would like to thank the AAA Board for accepting AANI as members. We very much appreciate the support that AAA have afforded us over the past two years and in particular the support in our successful application to the Chancellor for banking fine funds. We have been working diligently to establish HEMS in NI, which we had hoped to commence in September 2016, as per our application to the Chancellor. However, following questions about the launching of a Doctor led service, the project is now behind target as we await the feedback of the Chief Medical Officer who is reviewing the clinical governance, capability and resilience of that style of service. The AANI believe an initial Paramedic staffed model would allow the service to start very soon, delivering lifesaving care to medical and trauma patients. This would then allow time for the advanced critical care teams, which should include doctors, to be trained within a structured clinical governance program.’’

Dr David McManus, Medical Director for Northern Ireland Ambulance Service Health and Social Care Trust concluded by saying: “The Northern Ireland Ambulance Service is delighted to become a member of the Association of Air Ambulances and looks forward to working with AAA as we deliver a HEMS in NI together with our charitable partner Air Ambulance NI. NIAS is committed to delivering high quality, safe patient care and we welcome the opportunity to learn from the experience and expertise of the wider AAA membership and very much value their support.”