London’s Air Ambulance Charity Annual Review 2019/20
CONTENTS Introduction
29
Reaching out to young people
4
About us
30
The support of our volunteers
5
Our NHS partners
31
London’s Air Ambulance Charity in the
6
Our objectives
8
A look back with Mark Vickers
community
Strategic objective 4 - Double Income
10
The year in highlights
12
Meet our new Medical Director
32
Our 30th Anniversary Gala
13
Meet our new Lead Clinician
34
Engaging with our supporters
36
Working with our corporate partners
Strategic objective 1 - Saving Time
38
Challenge events
14
Mission map 2019
40
Financial update
16
Saving Time, Saving Lives appeal
Strategic objective 5 - Our Culture Strategic objective 2 - Outstanding Care
42
Our values
18
London’s Air Ambulance Covid-19 response
43
The 25th Anniversary of our Chief Fire Officer
19
Clinical innovations
44
A focus on our culture
20
The Institute of Pre-Hospital Care
45
The Channel swim
22
The Physician Response Unit
24
Supporting our patients
Strategic objective 3 - Connecting with the
Last words 46
Looking forwards with Jonathan Jenkins
48
Thank you to...
people of London 27
Our Patron
28
Celebrating our 30th Anniversary with London’s Premier League football clubs
3
ABOUT US
OUR NHS PARTNERS
When London calls, our teams are there, racing to reach those urgently in need of life-saving care. Our vision is to end preventable deaths in London from life-threatening injury. Our mission: to save more lives in London through rapid response and cutting-edge care. We are a charity that works alongside the NHS and our life-saving service is made possible by our supporters.
London’s Air Ambulance operates in partnership with Barts Health NHS Trust and London Ambulance Service NHS Trust.
Critical injury from road traffic collisions, falls from height, assaults and other injuries are the biggest killer of people aged under 40. Our helicopter and rapid response car teams are here 24/7 for every one of the 10 million people who live, work and travel in London. Our Physician Response Unit (PRU) attends emergency calls in the community.
Barts Health NHS Trust provides the doctors as well as the helipad facility at The Royal London Hospital. London Ambulance Service NHS Trust (LAS) provides paramedics who are seconded to the service. A flight paramedic operates from the control room and is responsible for dispatching the team from London’s Air Ambulance to the most critically injured people in London, 24 hours a day. The Physician Response Unit is a collaboration between London’s Air Ambulance, London Ambulance Service NHS Trust, Barts Health NHS Trust and local CCGs.
Whether it’s a major accident emergency like the Westminster Bridge terror attacks, or individual emergencies like road traffic or workplace accidents, every day, people across London need emergency medical care, fast. Whenever we are needed, London’s Air Ambulance will be there – bringing the hospital to the scene to deliver urgent, cutting-edge medical care when a life is on the line.
5
OUR OBJECTIVES
01
02
Saving time
Outstanding care
Treating everyone who needs us, when and where they need us
To improve patient care and to end preventable deaths
03 Connecting with the people of London To increase the number of charity givers in London who support our service
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04
05
Double income
Our culture
To ensure our financial security and sustainability over the next five years to fund our organisational objectives
Continue to develop a supportive and enabling environment that gets the best out of our people
7
A LOOK BACK With Mark Vickers, Chairman of the Board of Trustees
Having been established in 1989 by a group of committed, determined and pioneering medics, London’s Air Ambulance celebrated 30 years of saving lives in the financial year 2019/20. In addition, during this period, we attended our 40,000th patient since our formation. An incredible milestone. Our founders recognised that seriously injured patients were dying unnecessarily because of the delay in receiving prompt specialist medical treatment. Today, our mission remains to save the lives of all preventable deaths from trauma within London and we have ambitious plans to enhance our critical service. During 2019/20, we treated 1,667 patients via helicopter from 08:00 until sunset and by rapid response cars at night or in adverse weather conditions. It is fitting and humbling to appreciate the faithful kindness of our supporters throughout all this time. Through their unbelievable generosity, our income for the 2019/20 financial year reached £13,608,076. Thanks to the truly outstanding efforts of the Gala Committee, chaired by Julia Leal and Fabiana Ecclestone, the event was hugely successful and raised over £608,000.
We were delighted that the work of the charity was supported throughout 2019 by the Duke of Cambridge. As the Patron of our 30th Anniversary campaign, we are deeply honoured that he has chosen to continue his support for us as Patron of the charity for the next three years. We continued to develop our community fundraising work, with our engagement focusing on building partnerships in local communities in London and recruiting two new members of staff into the team to support the expansion of this work. Further development of our learning and outreach activities enabled us to connect with over 10,000 young people in London. Emphasising that we are one of London’s local charities, face-to-face fundraising has allowed us to recruit invaluable long-term supporters, forming a valuable source of income for the charity. In 2019/20 we recruited over 17,000 new regular givers and 18,000 lottery players – these were strong results against our ambitious targets.
Our corporate partnerships with the Bank of England, Herbert Smith Freehills and Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner provided considerable support to us, for which we are enormously grateful. We also received the wonderful news that the Department for Health and Social Care would grant £1.4 million for the redevelopment of the helipad and the provision of crucial equipment. Our long-term partners, Zoll, in addition to providing six new monitors, sponsored the inaugural Resuscitative Science Symposium and continued to fund our Golden Hour Fellow, Dr Mike Kim. Dr Kim’s work in understanding the causes of death in trauma has provided a vital insight into how we can change our working protocols as we strive to end preventable deaths at the roadside. Special thanks are also due to our partners, Barts Health NHS Trust and Londons Ambulance Service NHS Trust; it is through this partnership that we continue to work together to push the boundaries of pre-hospital care. Because of you, our supporters, our teams have been able to provide world-leading care to patients 24 hours a day, seven days a week; you are an essential part of our charity and you are the lifeblood of the service. Thank you for all of your unfailing support.
9
AUGUST
THE YEAR IN HIGHLIGHTS APRIL
Chief Fire Officer John Power marked 25 years of service. John performs a vital role, enabling thousands of take-offs and ensuring the safe arrival of patients. He has been an invaluable part of our charity’s story.
2019
MAY
In May, we were delighted to announce the backing of The Oval for our 30th Anniversary campaign. To celebrate the partnership, we flew the Cricket World Cup from our helipad base to The Oval.
JUNE
Over the summer we launched our new Life Saving Tea Parties, to help our service continue flying and mark 30 years of care in the Capital.
TEA PARTY
MY LIFE SAVING cup and Raise a help save a life
JULY
In July, London’s Premier League clubs joined together as one team to give their support to our charity as we marked our 30th anniversary.
TEA PARTY
MY LIFE SAVING cup and Raise a help save a life
In August, The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge went head to head in The King’s Cup. Our charity was selected as a beneficiary of the inaugural sailing regatta. We competed for the historic trophy and sailed through to an incredible second place.
SEPTEMBER
In September, a team from our charity swam the English Channel. The group included pilots, doctors, a paramedic and former patient Vicky. The team fought on against strong tides, heavy winds and even jellyfish to make it to the French coast.
DECEMBER NOVEMBER OCTOBER
An incredible 140 runners took on the Royal Parks Marathon. The team included four of our own crew who completed the race in full uniform!
Our 30th Anniversary Gala was our most successful ever, raising a record £608,000 for our lifesaving charity. This is the equivalent of 275 potentially life-saving missions.
Dr Tom Hurst appointed as the new Medical Director of London’s Air Ambulance. Tom brings a wealth of expertise to the role. He is currently a Consultant in Pre-hospital Care with London’s Air Ambulance and a Consultant in Intensive Care medicine and Major Trauma at King’s College Hospital.
MARCH
JANUARY
Dr Anna Dobbie becomes our Lead Clinician. Anna joined the service in 2008 and now as Lead Clinician is responsible for the overall day to day running of the service, ensuring high clinical standards and supporting the entire team to deliver world class trauma care.
57
Barnet
51
Support London’s Air Ambulance Charity by holding your own tea party and raise vital funds to help save lives.
Support London’s Air Ambulance Charity by holding your own tea party and raise vital funds to help save lives.
londonsairambulance.org.uk/teaparty
londonsairambulance.org.uk/teaparty
London’s Air Ambulance is the registered charity that delivers an advanced trauma team to critically injured people in London. Registered Charity (801013).
London’s Air Ambulance is the registered charity that delivers an advanced trauma team to critically injured people in London. Registered Charity (801013).
FEBRUARY
During 2019 our team treated 1,730 patients. The Mission Map shows the distribution across the London Boroughs of where our team was dispatched.
63
Enfield
92
Haringey
Camden
In March, the Covid-19 pandemic meant that our charity team needed to work from home, as we all tried to stay safe and support the NHS. Many of our usual fundraising activities stopped and the impact will be felt for some time to come.
42
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“ WE WILL CONTINUE TO STRIVE TO DELIVER
MEET OUR NEW...
OUTSTANDING CLINICAL CARE
MEDICAL DIRECTOR
TO EVERY ONE OF OUR PATIENTS ”
LEAD CLINICIAN Dr Tom Hurst is a Bart’s Health Consultant in Pre-Hospital Care with London’s Air Ambulance and a Consultant in Intensive Care medicine at King’s College Hospital.
He trained in Manchester before undertaking a secondment to London’s Air Ambulance in 2008. Tom was Clinical Lead at East Anglian Air Ambulance from 2011 to 2014 and the sub-speciality lead for training in pre-hospital emergency medicine in London from 2014 to 2019. Tom’s appointment follows the departure from the Medical Director role of Dr Gareth Davies, who stepped down in 2019 following the end of his tenure as Trustee to the Board of Directors. Gareth held the role from 1996–2019 and remains a Consultant in pre-hospital care with the service. “It was a huge honour to be appointed to the role of Medical Director and to build on the incredible work
that Dr Gareth Davies has undertaken during his tenure. Gareth has steered London’s Air Ambulance to be a global leader in pre-hospital care and I am privileged to be guiding the service through its next phase. In 2019/20, we have made progress against our service goals. We have continued to pioneer new procedures and progressed with plans to redevelop the helipad. We have seen the PRU service grow in capacity and scope and we continue to develop our tripartite relationship with Barts Health NHS Trust and London Ambulance Service NHS Trust, to ensure we can provide critically injured patients with the world’s most innovative and cutting-edge pre-hospital care. This is truly an exciting time for London’s Air Ambulance. Pioneering by nature, we have already begun working with new procedures that have the potential to be transformative for our patients. There is of course, more to come and more that must be done. Our strategic aim – to reach even more patients, to deliver even more innovative care, remains at our core. I am hugely grateful to all those who have supported me since my appointment, throughout these challenging times. I am deeply proud of the team and humbled to work alongside them”.
Dr Anna Dobbie is a Bart’s Health Consultant in Pre-Hospital Care with London’s Air Ambulance and a Consultant in Emergency Medicine at The Royal London Hospital. Anna was appointed as a Consultant in 2017 and became Lead Clinician with our service in January 2020, taking over from Dr Gareth Grier. She was appointed as a Consultant in Pre-hospital Care in 2017 and became Lead Clinician with our service in January 2020. Anna developed an interest in PreHospital medicine whilst at medical school and gained experience in Pre-Hospital care in Birmingham before coming to work in London. She splits her working week between Pre-Hospital Care and working in Adult and Paediatric Emergency medicine at The Royal London Hospital.
As a Lead Clinician, Anna represents the views of the entire consultant body and is responsible for the overall day to day running of the service, ensuring high clinical standards and supporting the entire team to deliver world class health care. “It’s a privilege to have the opportunity to develop on the brilliant work of Dr Gareth Grier. I am excited to continue to work closely with Gareth, who is focusing on education and research as the Director and Education Lead at The Institute of Pre-Hospital Care. I am proud to be a part of this exceptional team that works incredibly hard to ensure we provide the best possible care to anyone in London who needs us, when and where they need us. We will continue to strive to deliver outstanding clinical care to every one of our patients. We are also conscious of our duty to grow and develop, to push the boundaries of what is possible. These clinical innovations have potential to save the lives of critically injured patients in the future – not just in London, but across the UK and internationally”.
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STRATEGIC OBJECTIVE 1 - SAVING TIME
MISSION MAP 2019
SAVING TIME 63
The year of our 30th anniversary marked the milestone of 40,000 patients treated by the service. The impact of severe injury on our patients and their families is enormous, and there are patients, who despite every effort, did not make it. Our thoughts are with all our patients, their relatives and the teams who treated them. As we took a moment to reflect during the year, we also took the opportunity to look forward with determination, to develop new innovations to save more lives in the future. Together we will continue to push the boundaries, drawing inspiration from our pioneering history to save lives in ways that would have seemed impossible 30, or even 10 years ago. We could not continue this vital work without our supporters and partners.
33
57
53
Hillingdon
58
63
92 51
Brent
Westminster
Ealing
Hammersmith & Fulham
48
1730
Richmond
14
City of London Kensington & Chelsea
Wandsworth
13
91
59
Waltham Forest
27 79
72
48
58
Outside London
Barking & Dagenham
Greenwich
32
Lewisham
47 Croydon
46
Newham
Lambeth
73
Redbridge
Tower Hamlets
Southwark
Kingston
Sutton
Havering
On average, we reach our patients within 11 minutes with our helicopter. We are committed to reducing this time further, bringing the hospital to the scene with our helicopters and rapid response cars. We have continued to be there for the people of London every hour of every day, working closely with our partners Barts Health NHS Trust and London Ambulance Service NHS Trust.
Hackney
Islington
83
57
Merton
11
Patients were treated in calendar year 2019 by our advanced trauma doctors and paramedics
29
42
55
92
31 35
Haringey
Camden
Hounslow
26
37
Barnet
Harrow
55
Enfield
Bromley
Bexley
In financial year 2019/20 we reached 42% of our patients by helicopter and in line with previous years we delivered greater resilience through the extension of our daylight flying hours and the provision of a second helicopter. From 31 March to 2 September 2019 we operated extended daylight flying hours until sunset each night, to deliver our advanced trauma team to critically injured people. The helicopter was available for an additional 317 additional hours, during which it was called out 98 times. Our cars remain a critical part of our service when we cannot fly due to darkness or poor weather, attending 58% of our overall missions. We have also increased the number of rapid response cars to eight, ensuring we have greater fleet resilience and can respond to major incidents. We have continued to train for and develop our major incident responses in conjunction with Barts Health NHS Trust and London Ambulance Service NHS Trust, taking part in joint exercises as well as running our own. With our partners we have continued to be closely involved with the inquiries and their outcomes on the major incidents that took place in 2017. We attended the Fishmongers’ Hall incident in November 2019 and the Streatham incident in early 2020. This coming year, we are working with our partners to develop a one-year pilot of an additional team from 2pm-midnight each day from Spring 2021.
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STRATEGIC OBJECTIVE 1 - SAVING TIME
SAVING TIME, SAVING LIVES Celebrating 30 years of London’s Air Ambulance Charity
We launched our fundraising appeal Saving Time, Saving Lives at the start of 2019 to mark our 30th Anniversary campaign. The appeal aimed to raise at least £1 million to redevelop our helipad base at The Royal London Hospital. In August 2019, we were delighted to announce a funding boost of £1.75 million. The County Air Ambulance Trust’s HELP Appeal, a charity dedicated to funding hospital and air ambulance helipads, donated £250,000. Our charity and Barts Health NHS Trust also received a grant of £1.4 million from The Department of Health and Social Care through its Air Ambulance Capital Funding programme. This will fund the much needed redevelopment of our helipad base on The Royal London Hospital, provided to us by Barts Health NHS Trust, as well as a package of cutting-edge operational and training equipment. This will enable us to respond to our patients even faster, improve training and make sure our crews have the facilities they need for their mental health and well-being.
Robert Bertram, Chief Executive of the County Air Ambulance Trust said: “After visiting London’s Air Ambulance’s helipad base, it was clear that improvements were urgently needed to provide far better and more suitable facilities for the doctors, paramedics and pilots who are involved in highly stressful situations on a daily basis. We are proud that we are able to help them create a state-of-the-art facility that will also enable crews to reach critically ill patients even more quickly, helping to save more lives.” With thanks to the support of The HELP Appeal and The Department of Health and Social Care, we will be able to provide new facilities including:
•
An elevated ready crew room underneath our flight deck and placed closer to the aircraft for faster dispatch, anticipated to save 20-30 seconds off each launch.
•
Space for pilot and medical team planning.
•
A quiet space for post-mission debriefs and case analysis.
•
A “safe space” for on-duty teams to find respite after challenging missions.
•
A large training room/simulation theatre for teaching, moulages and kit checks.
•
A package of operational and training equipment, including patient ventilators and simulation training aids.
•
Rest pods for frontline crews.
•
Additional storage space to house operational, training and major incident equipment.
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STRATEGIC OBJECTIVE 2 - OUTSTANDING CARE
LONDON’S AIR AMBULANCE COVID-19 RESPONSE During the COVID-19 pandemic, we remained operational 24/7 for every one of the 10 million people who live and work in London and we have expanded and adapted some services. We extended our flying hours as usual in March and this year that was just as lockdown began. Although we saw a reduction in trauma patients in the first two weeks of lockdown, sadly this quickly returned to pre-lockdown levels. Our Physician Response Unit also expanded its working hours and added a second team, which helped to free up hospital beds and reduced risks for vulnerable patients by avoiding a trip to hospital. Clinical team members and the operations crew worked relentlessly to keep our patients safe and service operational, while also supporting the NHS through their other roles. Our Patient Liaison Nurse worked closely with the Nightingale hospital to set up its family liaison unit, supporting those with loved ones fighting the virus and delivering staff training on compassionate care. Some of our team members aided The London Ambulance Service NHS Trust with transfers of COVID-19 patients and our helicopters were offered up as part of a national register, as assets that could be called upon if required for national effort. Thankfully this was not needed.
The impact of COVID-19 on our usual fundraising activities will be felt for some time to come. However, the new working environment created by the virus has in fact enabled our charity teams to explore innovative ways to reach and engage with our supporters. From virtual events to social media fundraisers, we are rising to the challenge. Our ambitions may now be more challenging to fund, but that hasn’t meant we have reigned them back. Although it is now a common-place phrase, these really are unusual times. But our people have risen to the challenges presented by COVID-19. We can’t thank them enough for their continued passion, resilience and commitment to our cause.
CLINICAL INNOVATIONS Red cell and plasma trial In collaboration with London’s Air Ambulance clinical teams, the transfusion team at The Royal London Hospital has conducted a feasibility study delivering combined red cell and plasma (RC&Plasma) components to patients at risk of death from bleeding. The trial, kindly supported by The Saracens Foundation and The Henry Surtees Foundation, finishes in October 2020 – project results are eagerly awaited and may lead to a large-scale national trial involving other UK Air Ambulances.
Trust and London Major Trauma Network, to support patients from injury to recovery. The first step in late 2019 was to work with LAS to implement a video link, using the GoodSam App, from the despatch desk at LAS Emergency Operating Centre (EOC) in Waterloo, to allow our paramedic direct video access (with appropriate permissions) to any smart phone that had called the EOC. This not only allows prompt advice to be given, but also ensures that the right assets are despatched to the scene more quickly.
ECMO and Sub 30 trial
Looking ahead: Zone 1 REBOA
We have been supporting Barts Health NHS Trust in an ECMO (Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation) and Sub 30 trial. This trial assesses the feasibility of developing pre-hospital ECMO within 30 minutes of a call to the emergency services, for selected patients suffering out-of-hospital cardiac arrest in London. The trial started during the 2019/20 financial year but was brought to a halt, due to the COVID-19 pandemic in March. The trial now has approval in principle to restart.
REBOA stands for Resuscitative Endovascular Balloon Occlusion of the Aorta. It is a procedure that involves placement of an endovascular balloon in the aorta – this acts like a tourniquet, but inside the body to control bleeding.
GoodSam We are making good progress with work to digitise many of our routine processes on the helipad, so that we can free up our medical teams for training and development. In 2019, we began a new operational digital strategy to support frontline clinicians. This provided an exceptional quality of pre-hospital trauma by sharing patient data electronically and supporting improved integration with London Ambulance Service NHS Trust, Barts Health NHS
London’s Air Ambulance has been carrying out this procedure in ‘Zone 3’ above the pelvis, since 2012. In May 2020, we started a clinical trial of Zone 1 REBOA – this is the use of REBOA in the area above the diaphragm. The ability to block blood flow higher up in the body means we can potentially use this intervention in a wider group of patients with bleeding anywhere below the diaphragm as opposed to only within the pelvis, but this is accompanied by greater risks and requires a more complex procedure to mitigate the risks. This is the first time REBOA Zone 1 has ever been used outside of the hospital setting worldwide, in a study to evaluate its effectiveness.
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STRATEGIC OBJECTIVE 2 - OUTSTANDING CARE
THE INSTITUTE OF PRE-HOSPITAL CARE Injuries and the other looking into Causes of Death in Trauma and our Golden Hour Project.
The 2019/20 financial year saw another hugely successful year for The Institute of Pre-Hospital Care in all areas of education, innovation and research. We launched the world’s first Masters in Pre-hospital Medicine in partnership with Queen Mary University of London and delivered with Barts Health NHS Trust and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry. In September 2019 we welcomed the first cohort of students to the programme, that brings together key areas of theory and practice necessary for advanced practitioners in the pre-hospital field. During this financial period the cohort completed modules in Applied Toxicology and Applied Resuscitation. The Intercalated BSc in Pre-Hospital medicine continued to go from strength to strength, seeing 21 students join us as the sixth cohort in September 2019 and they achieved successful results throughout the year. Our collection of short courses continues to grow and expand. The Pre-Hospital Care Course (PHCC), in its fourteenth year, saw a review and redesign in January 2020. This was to build and expand on the success and positive feedback of the course and to help try to better reflect the patients our clinical teams see and treat on a day-to-day basis. The course continues to attract candidates from across the world, helping to develop
The Golden Hour Conference II – The Pathology of Traumatic Injury expanded upon the findings presented at the 2018 conference and the further work carried out by Dr Michael Kim, our Golden Hour Fellow. We were fortunate to have expert speakers join us from around the world, to explore a huge range of material centred on the real problems that clinicians face at the roadside and in hospital when dealing with critically injured patients.
increasingly productive relationships with countries such as Northern Ireland, Canada and New Zealand. We continued to run and develop the Pre-hospital Extracorporeal Life Support (PEELS) Course to train our pre-hospital teams undertaking our ECMO trial, the Sub 30 Trial. Our Pre-Hospital Emergency Endovascular Resuscitation (PEER) course is focussed on REBOA and evolves each time it is taught, in response to lessons learned by our endovascular team during their educational visits across the world. Our service is now recognised as leading the way in the pre-hospital evolution of this type of intervention. The course allows us to innovate further with REBOA and has now expanded further to include the teaching and training for our teams to perform Zone 1 REBOA and partial REBOA, as part of the upcoming P-PRO (Pre-Hospital Zone 1 Partial Resuscitative Endovascular Balloon Occlusion of the Aorta) trial. Our PUNCC (Pre-Hospital Underground and Novel Concepts Course) combines specific training for our teams who help those injured on the underground network with rehearsal and preparation for the delivery of all of the novel concepts and ideas that we have in
the service pertaining to these incidents. Throughout the 2019/20 financial period we delivered 3 PUNCC courses for our teams and invited our colleagues from Transport for London and the British Transport Police to allow for interdisciplinary training when attending incidents on the rail networks. The Pre-Hospital Care Programme (PCP) academic fora, held once a month, continue to attract approximately 300 students each time, with Pre-Hospital care achieving an increasingly high profile within the medical school at Queen Mary University of London. Our clinical fellows continue to push the boundaries in terms of understanding our patient groups and how we can create the survivors of the future. We currently have two clinical fellows in post; one looking into Head
We undertook a detailed exploration of some of the most novel concepts in trauma care, benefitting from the insight of eminent guest speakers from a variety of backgrounds. In doing so we hope to have set the scene for the future, with new collaborations and friendships that help us all to innovate. This year’s clinical focus was around the two biggest killers from trauma, head injury and haemorrhage. The vital role that Coroners and Pathologists play in leading us to novel therapies was a centrepiece. Major incidents and terrorist attacks continue to pose significant challenges for medical teams across the world. The Golden Hour for each patient during mass casualty events is as vital to the individual as when a single patient presents alone. Our major incident sessions were delivered from the perspective of what every patient needs and deserves during these tragedies and real lessons learned from global events.
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STRATEGIC OBJECTIVE 2 - OUTSTANDING CARE
PHYSICIAN RESPONSE UNIT
The Physician Response Unit (PRU) is a collaboration between London’s Air Ambulance, London Ambulance Service NHS Trust, Barts Health NHS Trust and local CCGs. It is staffed by a senior emergency medicine doctor and an ambulance clinician and carries advanced medication, equipment and treatments usually only found in hospital. The service responds to 999 calls, treating patients in their community who would otherwise have often required an ambulance transfer to hospital. The PRU has pioneered the development of ‘Community Emergency Medicine’. This concept is still in its infancy and its future development presents an opportunity to address some of the current challenges faced by frontline staff working in Urgent & Emergency Care across the nation. The ethos is simple: to deliver high quality emergency care at the right time and place for patients. The PRU has been working hard to provide lifesaving support during the COVID-19 pandemic. It has expanded its working hours and added a second team in April 2020, to help free up hospital beds.
In the financial year 2019/2020, the PRU: •
Treated 1,736 patients in the community, of which 69% were managed in the community rather than being conveyed by ambulance to an Emergency Department.
•
Delivered the first Community Emergency Medicine Conference in October 2019, in cooperation with The Institute of Pre-Hospital Care at London’s Air Ambulance.
The first PRU Conference: ‘Breaking down barriers and innovating in integrated emergency care’ The programme aimed to stimulate conversation and idea-generation by bringing together experts in emergency and pre-hospital care. We discussed the past, present and future of care delivery to those in urgent need. We heard from those influential in policy making and driving change in ambulance services and emergency departments and those who have implemented pre-hospital services that aim to deliver emergency medical care in the community. We looked at specific opportunities to impact on quality of care for our patients and we had the privilege of hearing from a patient’s relative, who was managed by our own Physician Response Unit.
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STRATEGIC OBJECTIVE 2 - OUTSTANDING CARE
SUPPORTING OUR PATIENTS
“ LONDON’S AIR AMBULANCE IS AN AMAZING SERVICE
IT IS STAFFED BY WONDERFUL PEOPLE WHO ARE
COMPASSIONATE, THOUGHTFUL AND EMPATHETIC AND NOT JUST THE MEDICAL STAFF,
Our Patient Liaison Nurse (PLN) has continued to provide additional support to patients and their families as they embark on the long and often difficult recovery journey. The PLN role bridges the gap between the pre-hospital care that our service is renowned for and the patient’s ongoing recovery. This is achieved in the following ways: •
The provision of face to face follow-ups with patients to provide additional support and guidance, 172 bedside visits during the reporting period and the facilitation of peer-to-peer support opportunities whenever appropriate.
•
The continued signposting of patients and their families to other organisations that can provide vital and much needed support outside of the health service remit. The continued provision of bereavement consultations for bereaved families, giving them the opportunity to meet and hear from the teams who treated their loved ones.
•
Facilitating 55 patient and family visits to the helipad to meet the teams who looked after them.
•
The involvement of patients in the training and education for both clinicians and the BSc in Pre-hospital Medicine, to help enhance learning through the sharing of patient experiences.
•
In conjunction with the Institute of Pre-hospital Care, secured funding, planned and executed the second Pan London Trauma Nursing Conference, which brought together 450 nurses from the four trauma networks that make up the Pan London Trauma System.
The successes of the PLN role is such that it is being widely shared with similar services, including last year, North West Air Ambulance and Wales Air Ambulance.
I INCLUDE THE CHARITY STAFF AS WELL. I KNOW THIS BECAUSE I AM ALSO A VOLUNTEER FOR THE SERVICE AND HAVE BEEN SINCE APRIL 2019.”
Nicky, who now volunteers for the charity Nicky, back on her skis after 17 months
CASE STUDY: NICKY Nicky was cycling home from a yoga class when she was hit by a 34-tonne lorry, which ran over her right leg and left foot. Despite the life-threatening injuries she suffered, a team of advanced trauma medics from London’s Air Ambulance treated Nicky at the roadside and saved her leg from having to be amputated. Nicky has faced a long and gruelling recovery, both physically and mentally. Her goal was to walk again unaided and eventually to ski. Incredibly Nicky raised over £6,000 by swimming a staggering 175 miles in her local swimming pool over a seven-month period in the early stages of her recovery. She then went on to ski 17 months after her accident. This year, for the first time, she has been able to get back on her bike and cycle again.
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STRATEGIC OBJECTIVE 3 - CONNECTING WITH THE PEOPLE OF LONDON
OUR PATRON
Reaching out to new supporters, educating people about our work and raising awareness of the fact we are funded by charity is vital to continue our life-saving service. 2019 was a landmark year as we celebrated our 30th Anniversary in a year-long campaign across our awareness and fundraising activities.
As our 30th Anniversary Patron in 2019, the Duke of Cambridge has been by our side for several milestones and events over the past year. In May we took part in The King’s Cup, an eight-boat sailing regatta launched by The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge to raise awareness and funds for eight of their patronages. We were proud to compete for the historic trophy, first presented by King George V at Cowes’ Royal Yacht Squadron in 1920, with celebrity historian Dan Snow leading our crew to an incredible second place and raising our profile at the prestigious event. The Duke of Cambridge also supported our joint work with Child Bereavement UK, to deliver bereavement support training for emergency air ambulance crews, doctors and paramedics. He spoke passionately in a special video message of support, drawing on his own personal experiences.
In November, to mark the end of our 30th Anniversary year, we hosted a star-studded Gala event at the Rosewood London. The Duke attended to celebrate with us, meeting more of our crew and a former patient, and gave a moving speech paying tribute to our service. It is thanks to our Patron’s support at key events like these that we have successfully boosted our awareness efforts and reached so many of our goals in our 30th year. We look forward to working closely with our Patron in years ahead, to promote our world-leading service and further connect with the people of London.
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STRATEGIC OBJECTIVE 3 - CONNECTING WITH THE PEOPLE OF LONDON
CELEBRATING OUR 30TH ANNIVERSARY WITH LONDON’S PREMIER LEAGUE
REACHING OUT TO YOUNG PEOPLE
In July 2019, London’s Premier League football clubs joined together to give their support to our charity as we marked our 30th Anniversary.
Our learning and outreach activity with schools, colleges and youth groups has gone from strength to strength this year. We carried out 102 visits and engaged with 10,664 young people across 25 London boroughs. Our Helivan has certainly been well used in our aim to inspire the doctors, paramedics and pilots of the future.
To mark the occasion our non-operational helicopter visited the training grounds of Chelsea, Tottenham Hotspur and West Ham. At each ground the aircraft was met by an ex-patient of our service who was treated to an incredible experience with club representatives, giving them and their families an exclusive tour and gifts to remember their day. At Chelsea, Bruno Machado was met by Chelsea star Ruben Loftus-Cheek. Bruno, 11, sustained a traumatic brain injury after a road traffic collision in 2018. He was also met by paramedic Richard Webb-Stevens, who treated Bruno at the scene, and pilot Adam Belton. The next stop was Tottenham Hotspur, where club ambassador Ryan Mason welcomed life-long Spurs fans Zoe Sharp, her husband and their four young boys. Zoe was eight months pregnant with her youngest boy when she was involved in a serious road traffic collision and had to be airlifted to The Royal London Hospital by our team. Finally the aircraft visited West Ham, where Hammers fan Mat Nice and his wife were met by David Gold, Chairman of the club. Mat was electrocuted whilst at work and suffered serious burns. We were by his side within nine minutes of receiving the 999 call, treating him at scene and helping him reach a burns centre.
In July 2019 we were invited by our friends at Centre of the Cell to deliver a Big Question Lecture to members of the public. Dr Flora Bird, paramedic Alex Ulrich and Chief Fire Officer John Power spoke to an audience of over 100 people about their roles and experiences working at London’s Air Ambulance. In March 2020 we took our giant operation game and ran workshops about the service at KidZania over six days as part of their careers focused activities. The team engaged with young people from across London and further afield that came to visit the indoor city run by children.
CASE STUDY: I CAN BE In 2019, we began a partnership with I Can Be. The charity’s aim is to introduce children to the world of work, broadening horizons and helping them to discover the breadth of opportunity around them.
“ WE CARRIED OUT
102 VISITS AND ENGAGED 10,664 YOUNG PEOPLE ACROSS 25 LONDON BOROUGHS ”
Targeting inner-city primary schools, I Can Be enables girls to explore jobs they otherwise may never be exposed to, building their curiosity and confidence along the way. We were delighted to take the opportunity to host groups of seven and eight-year-old girls in our charity office to learn about the work our charity does daily and what it’s like to work for our team. We have hosted groups from schools in Tower Hamlets and Newham. Located close to The Royal London Hospital, the pupils often see the helicopter flying overhead and these visits gave them the opportunity to find out more about the service and the different people that work in our team. The pupils that attend the visit deliver an assembly for their classmates when they return to school, to share what they have learned. The pupils are asked to prepare questions in advance to make the most of their visit. Rhiannon Evans, Learning and Outreach Manager, said: “We were impressed with the questions the girls had about our service and the different jobs in our team. We’re looking forward to hosting more visits from I Can Be”.
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STRATEGIC OBJECTIVE 3 - CONNECTING WITH THE PEOPLE OF LONDON
LONDON’S AIR AMBULANCE IN THE COMMUNITY
THE SUPPORT OF OUR VOLUNTEERS
Volunteers are a crucial part of London’s Air Ambulance Charity team, with 180 volunteers taking part in activities over the year. Volunteers supported some of our biggest events, including the Gala event, Lord’s Cricket Ground collection, Helipad Abseil event and the Pop Choir Christmas Carols event. In June 2019 volunteers had the opportunity to visit the helipad to observe a series of moulages run by our crew. During the session, volunteers saw first-hand how our team operate on scene, seeing procedures such as intubation and thoracotomy. This gave them an insight to exactly what our teams do to treat our patients on scene. Recognising the support our volunteers give us throughout the year is really important to the charity. In November 2019, we ran our annual volunteers recognition evening. The event is our opportunity to say a heartfelt thanks to our dedicated volunteers for all they have done for our charity over the previous 12 months. Volunteers heard from former patient Nigel, who told his story of being treated at the roadside by our team and going on to become a volunteer for the charity. He was joined by the paramedic who treated him, Richard Webb-Stevens, who gave his insight to what happened to Nigel as one of those treating him. Thank you to our partner, Informa, who kindly hosted the event.
CASE STUDY: ASHLEIGH, SUPPORTER CARE VOLUNTEER “I enjoyed volunteering for an important cause. As a student I was able to have flexibility in my hours and be able to do as much as I could, when I could, and didn’t feel pressured to do too much. “Volunteering with London’s Air Ambulance has given me a big insight into the work that goes on behind the scenes to help such an important cause support itself. I was also able to not just spend some time in the office, but also went out co-piloting – distributing and collecting donations pots. “I made some good connections there and have gained invaluable experience from my time both in the office as well as in co-piloting. As a student, volunteering here is a really good opportunity to expand your mind and to help and support such an important charity. I would recommend this to anyone who has as little as an hour or two a week to volunteer with London’s Air Ambulance Charity”.
Paramedic Bill Leaning and volunteer Triny at Shadwell Fire Station open day
During our 30th year we formed many partnerships within the community. We formed local charity partnerships with eight Marks and Spencer stores across London. These stores not only fundraised for us but also regularly hosted our own volunteers, which makes a significant contribution to our community engagement efforts. We also enjoyed the support of Lions Clubs International District 105a this year through a charity of the year partnership, including the opportunity to present at their convention and reach out to Lions’ members from across the country. In December, we were delighted that Trinity United Reformed Church in Wimbledon supported our charity for the second year running at their annual Christmas Tree Festival. This year the event helped to raise almost £14,000. After attending the event, a local member of the community, who was due to commence his year of Captaincy at prestigious Wimbledon Park Golf Club, chose to support us as his Charity of the Year. The club held numerous events throughout the year, including taking part in our annual abseil. We also receive inspirational support from the loved ones of patients we have treated. In September 2013, the Verrier family sadly lost their much-loved son and brother, George, at the age of 17. Over the past seven years, George’s family and friends have displayed amazing strength and love by keeping his memory alive. Each year they have been involved in many different fundraising events – from sponsored Zumbathons to marathons and Tough Mudder challenges. November 2019 was no exception and George’s mother Laura hosted a black-tie event in Club Langley Beckenham, raising an amazing £6,500.
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STRATEGIC OBJECTIVE 4 - DOUBLE INCOME
OUR 30TH ANNIVERSARY GALA
We aim to double our income, to ensure we can fund the replacement of our helicopters and car fleet, as well as to continue to invest in innovations to save more lives. The impact of the pandemic means we now expect to double our income by 2025. Our 30th Anniversary Gala was our most successful ever. Thanks to the efforts of our Gala Committee, led by Chair Julia Leal-Hartogs and Co-Chair Fabiana Ecclestone, the event raised a record £608,000. HRH The Duke of Cambridge attended, meeting the medical and operational crew, former patients and supporters of the charity. He also delivered a moving speech, informed by his personal experiences as an air ambulance pilot, in support of the charity’s life-saving work. Companies who helped to support the event included international contemporary and modern art galleries Maddox Gallery; leading provider of asset servicing solutions to the global alternative investment industry Citco Group of Companies; long-standing charity partner and life and pensions consolidator Phoenix Group. We also received support from our event partners – William Grant & Sons, Dickinson & Doris, Mount Street Printers and Château Marjosse. The event was attended by almost 300 VIP guests, Lord Jeffrey Archer led a live auction and presenter Natalie Pinkham hosted the evening. All this was made possible by our Gala Committee and we would like to thank Julia Leal Hartogs, Fabiana Ecclestone, Lady Alison Robinson, Annie Attlee, Cyrus Panahizadi, Daniella Helayel, Fiona Clutterbuck, Dr Flora Bird, Natasha Muller and Richard Harris for their unwavering support.
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STRATEGIC OBJECTIVE 4 - DOUBLE INCOME
ENGAGING WITH OUR SUPPORTERS
“ IN 2021, WE WILL BE ENCOURAGING
MORE POSITIVE, LONGER-LASTING RELATIONSHIPS BY FINDING NEW WAYS TO
Income from our individual donors – cash and regular donors, raffle players, lottery members and legators – is a major part of our plans for future income.
training programme to place more emphasis on how they can reflect our charity values in every fundraising conversation.
Growth continues to be primarily driven by face-to-face fundraising, but the charity also invested in testing new ways of engaging donors in 2019. This included using direct response TV advertising (DRTV) and digital advertising to recruit new regular givers and reduce our reliance on face-to-face fundraising. The DRTV and digital campaigns piloted in 2019/20, focused our messaging on ‘Every Second Counts’ and helped us to gain valuable learnings for testing in future financial years.
Our face-to-face fundraisers, many of whom have been dedicated representatives of the charity for several years, had a total of more than 285,000 conversations with the public in 2019/20 alone. This allowed us to reach new and varied audiences, who may not have otherwise heard about us or had the opportunity to give. We are encouraged by the feedback from our fundraisers, who relay how highly regarded the charity is by the people of London, even those who are not able to give.
Face-to-face fundraising has allowed us to recruit large volumes of long-term supporters, forming a reliable source of income for the charity. In 2019/20 we recruited over 17,000 new regular givers and approximately 18,000 lottery players through face-to-face fundraising – strong results against our ambitious targets.
For supporters to have the best journey with us, we also needed to put a stronger focus on compliance within our face-to-face programme. Tower Lotteries Ltd, Gemini Fundraising Ltd and Wesser Ltd, who are our trusted agency partners, worked collaboratively with us to establish new measures to evidence best practice, such as routine compliance and training audits of their practices, and new policies and procedures. This collaborative work with our face-to-face agency partners on compliance strengthened our working relationships, supporting the reliable nature of this income stream.
The majority of our supporters (65%) first donated to us through our face-to-face channel, according to our first supporter survey in 2019. Therefore, as our face-toface fundraisers are often the first step in a supporter’s journey with the charity, we redeveloped our fundraiser
IMPROVE THE INDIVIDUAL SUPPORTER’S EXPERIENCE ”
The end of the financial year brought with it a new challenge for face-to-face fundraising. The nationwide lockdown meant a complete pause on all face-to-face activity. We took this as an opportunity to refresh our approach and become more strategic, to strengthen our training and monitoring programmes and to increase fundraiser engagement. We supported our agency partners during this difficult time by ensuring they were prepared for the future relaunch of their fundraising activity. Looking forward into the next financial year, in line with our new engagement strategy, we will be encouraging more positive, longer-lasting supporter relationships by finding new ways to improve individual supporters’ experience, further developing our supporter journeys so that the right message gets to the right supporter at the right time.
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STRATEGIC OBJECTIVE 4 - DOUBLE INCOME
WORKING WITH OUR CORPORATE PARTNERS It is always our aim with corporate partnerships to develop rich and sustainable sources of income for the charity and relationships based on common purpose that provide meaningful levels of engagement for our partners.
Bank of England In 2018/19 we were part of the Bank of England’s most successful charity partnership as one of their two charities of the year. Staff raised £93,500 overall. The bank took part in various fundraising activities including tea parties, challenge events and our Helipad Abseil. Events were also held at the Bank of England for staff and their children to raise awareness about our work. In addition, the bank held a reception for the charity in their Court Room hosted by Sir Jon Cunliffe, Deputy Governor, Financial Stability. This reception enabled us to invite guests to the Bank, raise awareness and inspire future supporters. Rachel Butler, the Bank’s Community Lead for Inclusion and Sustainability, said: “It was a pleasure to work with London’s Air Ambulance Charity and their hardworking, dedicated and thoughtful team. While we were working together we met many people who
make the charity what it is. All their staff are focussed on what they do, and the help they can bring to people across London. They are a strong team and it is clear to see how the different work of all the people involved creates such strong support to those who need it, and how this teamwork builds a world class charitable service”.
Phoenix Group The year 2020 marks six years of partnership with Phoenix Group. In that time Phoenix employees have cycled, abseiled, run, walked, climbed – fully committing to raising near to £1m for Midlands Air Ambulance Charity and London’s Air Ambulance Charity. They have volunteered their time and skills, providing counsel and advice to both charities and becoming involved in key projects. We have had the pleasure of sharing skills and experience with both their Young Professionals Network, wider colleagues and Leadership teams. During our six years with them, Phoenix Group has seen a significant growth in its business. Our partnership has been based on successful collaboration with a growing number of colleagues and regions. Phoenix Group is now UK’s largest long-term savings
and retirement business. As the communities where Phoenix’s operations are based have expanded, their partnership has evolved to include both Scotland’s Charity Air Ambulance and Hampshire and Isle of Wight Air Ambulance.
A wine tasting evening was hosted in May, followed by a static ‘rowathon’ and then a visit from our own Captain Andy Thomson, who walked the eight floors of the London Head Office, speaking with staff and taking a moment to say thank you.
We are immensely grateful for the support of Phoenix Group and for the opportunity to work with this forwardlooking company, who embrace their responsibility as partners to bring everything to their charity relationships in support of our communities.
We worked with the firm to deliver two talks, one with Dr John Chatterjee on resilience and working under pressure to coincide with International Stress Awareness Week. We were also pleased to support the firm with a talk from Dr Mike Christian on PTSD, following the challenging time staff experienced when witnessing the second London Bridge Attack.
Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner, Charity of the Year Partnership January 2019 marked the launch of our partnership with Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner’s London Office. What followed was a jam-packed year of both physical challenges and fun events for all staff, as well as operational talks from our team. Employees eagerly signed up for the Helipad Abseil and eight runners completed the Royal Parks Half Marathon. A team of trekkers took on the North Downs 50km walk and one solo walker completed 100km, from Bath to Cheltenham.
Following a truly team effort, Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner collectively raised over £100,000 for London’s Air Ambulance Charity, £40,000 over the original target.
The Innovation Circle In February 2019, we launched the Innovation Circle. This philanthropic circle of passionate individuals, family foundations and trusts pledge to support London’s Air Ambulance Charity with a minimum annual gift of £5,000, funding our life-saving missions and clinical innovations. We were thrilled to welcome on board our first Founding Members throughout the year.
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STRATEGIC OBJECTIVE 4 - DOUBLE INCOME
CHALLENGE EVENTS
The year saw our challenge event participants raise funds by running, cycling, abseiling and swimming through the year. We had teams of people taking part in our annual challenge events, as well as taking their own challenges to help support the charity. April saw 27 runners join our London Marathon team, raising £52,131 by running through our city. Our team was cheered on by two amazing cheer squads, made up of runners’ friends and family, volunteers, charity and operational staff. In August, 31 cyclists rode the iconic Prudential RideLondon-Surrey 100 raising £17,293. Our team included riders from our corporate partners. September was a busy month with 260 brave people taking on the Helipad Abseil, raising a record £132,724. The Royal Parks Half Marathon was in October and saw our biggest ever team. 140 runners ran the beautiful 13.1 miles through Hyde Park, Green Park, St James’ Park and Kensington Gardens. PRUDENTIAL RIDELONDON-SURREY 100 BIKE RIDE HELIPAD ABSEIL ROYAL PARKS HALF MARATHON 39
WE MUST INVEST IN FUNDRAISING TO
FINANCIAL UPDATE Income stream
SUSTAIN AND GROW INCOME FOR OUR LIFE-SAVING
Full income 2019/20
WORK NOW AND IN FUTURE
Collections 1%
2019 2020
Individuals Corporate (inc Gift Aid) Giving 5% 33%
Trusts & foundations
Events 7%
Lottery
Barts Health NHS Trust 4% Investments >0.1%
Other income streams
£13.6.m
£10.5m
In 2019/20 we raised almost £14m (consolidated income) from our supporters and partners (comparative figure from 2018/19 £12m). With thanks to the generosity of our supporters, all income streams performed well with income from individuals and our lottery both increasing by 18%. Income from events almost doubled from £488k to £906k due to our successful 30th Anniversary Gala. Our supporters have donated generously both in cash and gifts in kind and every stream of income is vital to the ongoing sustainability, growth and development of the charity. We rely on this support to continue delivering our core service, using our helicopters and fleet of rapid response cars to treat an average of five patients each day. The support received also helps us fund strategic projects, including the planned expansion of our helipad facilities and vital clinical research like the Red Cell and Plasma trial.
£7.9m
£9.0m
£7.9m
£9.2m
£7.4m
£11.8.m
Income/Expenditure history
Where our funding came from
How we spent our funding
2016/17 Expenditure
2017/18 Income
2018/19
2019/20
Trusts and Gifts in Institute Foundations Kind 5% 2% 2%
Commercial (retail, lottery, sponsorship) 43%
It cost approximately £10.5m (consolidated costs) to provide London with an advanced trauma care service 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Almost half of this went directly towards funding our charitable activities and we made further investment in fundraising to provide future funding to expand and maintain the service.
How resilient are we? Reserves are held to safeguard the operation of our vital service in the event of an unexpected drop in income or in case of unexpected significant expenditure. Our Trustees have agreed a strategy whereby sufficient unrestricted cash reserves are held to meet, as a minimum, the cost of six months of operational costs. As of 31 March 2020, we had sufficient unrestricted cash reserves to fund 13 months’ operational costs should our funding sources cease. Of this, £4m has been placed in a designated fund for the planned replacement of our helicopters in 2025. Over the next five years, we plan to build up our reserves to secure a significant contribution towards the amount needed to acquire the new fleet.
Investment Strategy We must invest in fundraising to sustain and grow income for our life-saving work, now and in the future. The charity’s long term aims require significant cash expenditure, particularly the replacement of our helicopter fleet in 2025 at an estimated cost of £17 million. In 2018, we committed to doubling our income over five years to safeguard the future of the charity. The impact of the pandemic means we now expect to double our income by 2025. We have made substantial investment in fundraising in the past year and will continue to invest in fundraising over the coming years. For every pound of spending, 47p was spent delivering our service and 53p went towards fundraising. This follows a strategic decision to invest significantly in growing individual giving (including our lottery) over the coming years. This requires upfront funding to recruit new supporters to provide long-term, sustainable income, helping to fund the charity’s strategic objectives and ensure the best possible service for London.
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STRATEGIC OBJECTIVE 5 - OUR CULTURE
OUR VALUES
THE 25TH ANNIVERSARY OF OUR CHIEF FIRE OFFICER
Whether on our operational or charity team, all those who work for London’s Air Ambulance share in a passion for the work that we do. This passion drives us to deliver the best service we can for our patients.
Our longest serving Fire Officer, John Power, has celebrated 25 years with London’s Air Ambulance [in post] this year. We are privileged to have people like John on our team, who have dedicated their lives to our cause. This incredible wealth of experience, unwavering professionalism and complete dedication to our patients, is what makes our service what it is.
one single aspect of the service that made an impact on me that day, but I remember being impressed with the teamwork at the helipad. Everyone at the charity worked as a team, a close team. I simply thought ‘Wow, I want to work here’. And you knew you were doing some good. You can make an immediate difference to someone’s life”.
When John joined London’s Air Ambulance on 1st April 1994, his ex-colleagues at Battersea Heliport joked that doing it on a Fool’s Day was rather telling – leaving a stable job for a charity whose future was unpredictable seemed foolish to many. “We were always fighting our corner, and no one could be sure if London’s Air Ambulance would be around the next year”, says John.
Happy anniversary to John!
With our new strategy in place, this year we redefined our values to give us a common grounding over the next five years. Our teams came together to discuss what we consider to be intrinsic to our work, and established three new values:
John’s life has always revolved around aviation. Originally from Wood Green, the sky above John’s house was always full of aircraft. He watched the planes take turns towards Heathrow and spent the weekends observing the planes at the airport.
Compassionate
We care about people and put them at the heart of everything we do. We are kind, respectful and always keen to listen to feedback.
Courageous
We are prepared to achieve our mission in challenging environments. We are authentic, honest and not afraid to challenge and take calculated risks.
Pioneering
We embrace and lead change through our innovation and creativity. We are constantly learning, both from our successes and from our failures, to make sure we are always striving to improve.
Despite this life-long passion, it wasn’t primarily the aviation side of the service that struck him most when he first arrived at London’s Air Ambulance. When asked what went through his mind when he first visited after his interview in 1994, he says: “It’s hard to choose
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STRATEGIC OBJECTIVE 5 - OUR CULTURE
A FOCUS ON OUR CULTURE Our team culture sits on a solid foundation, built over 30 years. We have a strong sense of our purpose, our vision and mission. That said, we know there is always more we can do to further develop our journey together as one team. We want to ensure we have a culture of psychological safety, which will create a fearless organisation. We are cultivating an environment that feels safe for taking considered risks, which arises from a sense of belonging and respect. We speak often of mental fitness and the vital importance of looking after our mental well-being, as well as our physical.
THE CHANNEL SWIM infrastructure – including our IT infrastructures and the helipad expansion project, to help support our teams to do their best work together. We accept that our organisation does not reflect the full diversity of the city we serve, and we are seeking to address that. We are investing in external reviews of our culture, diversity, inclusion and board effectiveness. We are progressing towards a successful and complicated combination of cultures – we know that culture cannot be ‘one size fits all’ for our varied teams from clinical to fundraising, aviation to accounts.
We are focussed on developing clarity around our leadership; a spirit of working towards common goals, but with clear boundaries around roles and expectations. We are investing in people and
“ THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR ALL YOUR SUPPORT –
IT GOT ME THROUGH THE CHALLENGE!”
In September 2019, a team from our charity successfully swam the English Channel in aid of our life-saving service. It was a challenge that embodied our ‘Courageous’ values as well as our ‘One Team’ culture, with the group representing all areas of our service including pilots, doctors, a paramedic and a former patient, divided into two teams to swim the 21 mile stretch in relay. The teams were up against undeniably tough conditions, with the attempt being postponed and almost cancelled due to adverse weather. Nevertheless, the teams fought on against strong tides, heavy winds and even jellyfish to make it to the French coast.
Among the teams was Victoria Lebrec, who was treated by our service in 2014 after she was thrown from her bike by a lorry. Victoria was treated by our team at the scene of her accident and became one of the world’s first survivors of pre-hospital REBOA. Despite doctors being sadly forced to amputate her leg, Victoria has made an outstanding recovery. She swam on her team with paramedic and PRU clinical manager Bill Leaning, who treated her on that day. Victoria said: “I cannot believe we did it! It means so much to me to have completed such a hard, physical challenge given all my injuries. My team were amazing, and I feel so privileged to have shared this with them. Thank you so much for all your support – it got me through”. Bill said: “What makes working for London’s Air Ambulance for me is the team and the camaraderie. That’s what being a flight paramedic and PRU clinical manager is for me; working together towards that one goal to help the patient. A challenge like this is no different. It’s really special being out here with Victoria not so much because of what we did for her but because of her massive four-year journey. I was a very small part at the start of that journey, and Victoria has gone right the way through to the end where it’s so important for her to finish this. It was a privilege to be on the boat with her to see her complete this challenge”. To date, the team have raised over £36,562, enough for 16 potentially life-saving missions. 45
LOOKING FORWARDS With Jonathan Jenkins, CEO
We began the financial year in a strong position, thanks to all the hard work that went into making our 30th Anniversary year such a success. We have strong reserves and can continue to invest in fundraising opportunities, accelerating our plans to meet our objectives across the clinical and charity teams. Looking ahead today, it is inevitable that the impact COVID-19 will have on the charity sector will also be felt by our organisation. In the 30-year history of London’s Air Ambulance Charity, we have of course never encountered a pandemic. Our clinical teams supported the frontline fight against COVID-19, whilst maintaining a 24/7 trauma service for London and our charity team have rallied to keep the service operating against a backdrop of fundraising restrictions we have never seen before. We’ve had to stop many of our usual fundraising activities due to the pandemic. This has lost the charity an estimated £5million over the next two to three years and the impact of that will be felt for some time to come. Whilst COVID-19 brings with it a degree of uncertainty, we have strength in our resources and we are as ambitious as ever. Our five-year strategy, Saving More
Lives, developed in 2018, still stands the test of time today. We are still planning to replace our helicopter fleet in 2025, as well as our cars every three years, to continue providing London with a world-class, 24/7 service. We are confident but cannot be complacent. Our vision is unwavering; to end preventable deaths in London from serious injury. Our values: compassionate, courageous and pioneering, continue to drive us. The next year will see numerous investments in our service, including progressing the redevelopment of our helipad and funding for research and service expansion. To fund these developments, we needed to double income over five years, to connect with the people of London, and to invest in our people. This will ensure not only the long-term stability of the charity, but that we excel at our delivery of rapid response and cutting-edge care, ready to meet the needs of those we serve.
for them. The appointment of The Duke of Cambridge as our Royal Patron for the next three years will undoubtedly boost awareness of the charity and his support for the crew is heartfelt. I would like to thank all our corporate partners, whose time, energy and enthusiasm enables us to raise valuable funds for the charity, whilst also maintaining fantastic networks for future support. I wish to thank our wonderful volunteers – their tireless dedication to the charity and our cause continues to inspire me. Finally – thank you to our supporters for the generous part that they have played in enabling our service to keep on saving lives. If the past year has taught us anything, it is that nothing can be certain. Looking to the future – we know that with our supporters behind us, anything is possible.
Our fundraising activity is also expanding. We have invested in team expertise and we are making great progress against refining our supporter journey, helping to engage our much-valued supporters in the best way
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THANK YOU TO We couldn’t do what we do without our supporters. We are continually humbled by those who donate, play our lottery, give up their time, take on challenges and more to help us help our patients. Whether you have been there since we began 30 years ago, or have more recently joined our family, thank you. You are vital part of our team; of the care we provide; and of our patients’ journeys. We are proud to be funded by you.
Our corporate partners Aberdeen Standard Investment Banham Bank of England Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner LLP Byrne Group Canary Wharf Contractors Fund CIS Security Ltd Credit Agricole CIB Epoch Capital Ltd ERS Insurance Group Euroclear
Foxtons Hall & Woodhouse Herbert Smith Freehills LLP ICAEW Informa International SOS LDC Lionside Limited MFS International MTM Mountford Piggott NatWest Markets Phoenix Group Safe and Sound Sequel Shearman & Sterling LLP Tokio Marine Kiln Group Wells Fargo Winckworth Sherwood LLP
Trusts, foundations and livery companies The Air Pilots’ Benevolent Fund The Anthony Hart Charity Trust The Aspect Charitable Trust The Astor Foundation
The Baker Charitable Trust The Beaverbrook Foundation The Belvedere Trust The Bothwell Charitable Trust The C.A. Redfern Charitable Foundation The Cadogan Charity The Carr-Gregory Trust The Chaldon Charity Trust The Chapman Charitable Trust The Cinven Foundation The County Air Ambulance Trust The de Brye Charitable Trust The Dixie Rose Findlay Charitable Trust The Edith Murphy Foundation The Elizabeth Frankland Moore and Star Foundation The Geoff and Fiona Squire Foundation The Gerald Micklem Charitable Trust The Gisela Graham Foundation The Goreeb & Yeteem Trust The Grace Trust The Grimsdale Charitable Trust The Guild of Freemen of the City of London
The Heathside Charitable Trust The Hilda Beer Charitable Trust The ISTAT Foundation The James Tudor Foundation The John and Cecilia Gordon Charitable Trust The John Beckwith Charitable Trust The Joseph Strong Frazer Trust The Lancashire Foundation The Lloyds Bank Foundation The Mactaggart Third Fund The Mahoro Charitable Trust The Masonic Charitable Foundation The Mistra Trust The Modiano Charitable Trust The Mrs Maud Van Norden Charitable Trust The Ocado Foundation The Persula Foundation The Ripple Trust
The RM Stables Family Charitable Trust The Roger Raymond Charitable Trust The Royal Foundation The Sandra Ann Maxworth Personal Injury Trust The Sandra Charitable Trust The Saracens Foundation The Schroder Charities Trust The Spear Charitable Trust The Stanley Foster Charitable Trust The Steel Charitable Trust The Trevor Chinn Charitable Trust The Vandervell Foundation The Warwick Trust The White Oak Charitable Trust The Worshipful Company of Arts Scholars Charitable Trust The Worshipful Company of Builders’ Merchants
The Worshipful Company of Chartered Accountants The Worshipful Company of Glovers The Worshipful Company of Loriner’s Charitable Trust The Worshipful Company of Parish Clerks The Worshipful Company of Tallow Chandlers’ Benevolent Fund The Worshipful Company of Tylers and Bricklayers
The Innovation Circle Founding Members The Beaverbrook Foundation Tim Hennock Philip Broadley
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For more information please contact: E: info@londonsairambulance.org.uk T: 020 3023 3300 londonsairambulance.org.uk @LDNairamb Registered Charity 801013
