Although it is a critical emergency responder North West Air Ambulance gets no NHS funding buts its latest accounts show successful annual fundraising of more than £15m amid an increase in callouts. Tony McDonough reports

Air ambulances are an increasingly common sight – ferrying critically injured patients to hospital or treating them at the scene.

However, as vital as the service now is, the North West Air Ambulance (NWAA) gets no NHS or Government funding. It is entirely dependent on its own fundraising efforts to keep the organisation running and keep the helicopters in the air.

Just to cite one example to illustrate the critical role it plays – following the attack on the Southport dance school in July 2024, when Axel Rudakubana stabbed three children to death and injured many others, the NWAA was swiftly on the scene.

A total of eight patients with stab injuries were treated at the scene by trained medics and were ferried to Alder Hey Children’s Hospital and Aintree University Hospital in Liverpool and Southport and Formby hospital.

In the past couple of weeks the service, a registered charity, has published its annual accounts for the 12 months to March 31, 2024, on Companies House.

They show total income for the year of £15.7m – up from £14.3m in the previous year. Just over £7m came from donations and legacies, £8.4m from trading activities which includes its retail outlets and weekly lottery, and investments.

Total expenditure for the 12-month period was more than £12.7m up more than 12% on the previous year. This was due to investment in new innovation and skills. In particular, a new night car service and a pharmacist were both introduced during the year.

Rising inflation also pushed up costs and the service responded to a greater number of callouts, rising almost 12% to 1,546.

In its annual report, NWAA said: “We rely entirely on donations to fund our work. Without the public’s generosity, taking part in its weekly lottery, taking part in events, becoming regular donors or leaving a gift in their will, the lifesaving service we provide would not continue.”

In this current calendar year NWAA says it needs to raise around £18m to keep its full range of services going. Founded in 1999 with just one aircraft, the charity now has three choppers equipped with the latest tech.

It also operates a number of road vehicles and its medical staff in the air and on the ground comprise medical consultants and critical care paramedics. There has been a shift away from just getting patients to hospital quickly with care increasingly being administered at the scene.

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“Our delivery of blood transfusions has increased from 67 last year to 95 this year,” the report added. “Our enhanced pre-hospital care service is now firmly established… our aspiration is to trailblaze the way forward in pre-hospital care.”

NWAA finished the year with a consolidated surplus of £1,666,707. At March 31, 2024 total unrestricted reserves, essential to deal with any sudden or unexpected falls in income, stood at £19.9m.