Seriously ill or injured patients from across Yorkshire are benefitting from extended air ambulance flying hours thanks to a generous donation to the Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust.

Over £123,000 was donated by the HELP Appeal, a national charity set up to help provide Major Trauma Centres like Leeds with the necessary new or upgraded base infrastructure to enable night landing and so support the specialist skills of the pilots and clinical teams.

The donation has been used to fund important lighting and fire-fighting equipment on the helideck at the Leeds General Infirmary, which is enabling air ambulances to land later into the evening, therefore increasing access to the Major Trauma Centre.

Leeds is one of 22 Major Trauma Centres in England providing around-the-clock life-saving treatment for seriously injured patients from West Yorkshire (adults), and Yorkshire and Humber (children). Often, patients are flown in to the service by air ambulance because of the extent of their injuries and the need for rapid treatment. 

Professor Peter Giannoudis, Professor of Trauma and Orthopaedic Surgery at the Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust said: “The HELP Appeal’s kind donation will have a huge impact on patient care. It will facilitate the prompt transfer of seriously injured patients to Leeds Major Trauma Centre allowing the medical staff to intervene early, save lives and reduce morbidity. All the staff at the Major Trauma Centre are delighted with this advancement.”

Linda Pollard OBE, Chair of the Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust said: “The HELP Appeal has been instrumental in facilitating the extension of our helideck capabilities, which is ensuring we can truly deliver world class major trauma services to the people of Yorkshire.”

Robert Bertram, Chief Executive of the HELP Appeal said: “People can become seriously ill or injured anytime of the day or night and with clocks changing, there is even less daylight for air ambulances to land safely on hospital helipads. This new, state of the art lighting system at Leeds General Infirmary’s helipad solves this problem, allowing helicopters to land, even when it’s dark, so patients can get the urgent treatment they need quickly at any time of the day.

“We were also delighted to donate the funds needed for the helipad to have a new static firefighting system, which will help to extinguish fires really efficiently, doesn’t interrupt what the emergency care teams need to do and isn’t affected by the wind – a must when the helipad is on the roof.”