#Preparing to Land
Did you know we are in the final stages of fundraising for a new helipad within the hospital complex? We need to raise a final £1.5m (the equivalent of just £16 for every person treated in our Emergency
Department alone last year) to stay on track to be operational by the summer of 2020.
Every £1 makes a difference.
To find out more, visit: www.ldh.nhs.uk/helipad
Raising funds for a helipad within the hospital complex:
When someone suffers a major trauma the quicker they receive specialist emergency care, the more likely it is that the treatment will prevent death or serious disability. This is often referred to as the 'Golden Hour' and emergency services strive to get patients to the most appropriate place for lifesaving care within an hour of sustaining their injury. Helicopters offer a much more reliable way of transporting critically ill patients as they significantly reduce travel time compared to a land ambulance.
The Emergency Department at the L&D is renowned as one of the best in the country and treats over 90,000 people each year. Approximately 25% of these have life threatening injuries and require immediate and specialist medical care.
There is currently no helipad providing direct access to the hospital and no 24/7 helipads specifically for Herts, Beds and Bucks. At present, while it is possible to airlift patients to the hospital, the helicopters must land in a local playing field and the patient is then transferred over the final distance by road. Air Ambulances have to travel from as far away as Northampton and Cambridgeshire to get to patients, and if the road journey from the current landing location to the hospital is deemed too risky these patients can be taken to the nearest emergency helipad - 25 miles away - rather than being brought to the L&D.
The story so far:
Planning permission has already been granted for the structure, work is scheduled to be carried out from the summer of 2019 and the scheme could be operational as early as summer 2020.
We need your support
Thanks to the support of our local community, we have already raised an incredible £3.5million of our £5.4m fundraising target (project cost £7m), but we are still actively seeking your support to raise the remaining money needed to make our vision a reality.
The benefits of constructing a helipad at the hospital:
Aside from the precious minutes saved by being able to stay in
the locale and transfer all patients direct to the hospital, the location for
the new helipad has been chosen because it is the best place to transfer
patients directly from the air ambulance to the Emergency Department, Stroke Unit and Cardiac Centre; areas where the hospital is already deemed a standard-setter. This will enable staff to treat even more patients with an even higher level of care. Once open, the helipad will also make the L&D the only 24/7 helipad connected to a neonatal department in the whole of the UK.
