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Feb 13

Specialist child doctors have praised the work of Yorkshire Air Ambulance in helping to save the lives of critically ill babies and children across the county.

Over the last year Yorkshire Air Ambulance has worked with Embrace – the Yorkshire & Humber Infant and Children’s Transport Service – to rapidly get specialist medical teams and equipment to local hospitals to deal with neonatal and paediatric emergencies.

This month alone YAA helicopters have flown two missions for Embrace, taking medical teams from their base in Barnsley to help treat very sick babies in Scarborough and Scunthorpe.

Dr Steve Hancock, lead clinician for paediatrics at Embrace, said: “Although the vast majority of our journeys are done safely and appropriately by road, there are situations where the option to use the helicopter is crucial.

“It has proved really valuable to be able to use Yorkshire Air Ambulance to get a team and equipment out to critically ill babies and children in some of our more distant hospitals.

“They can then assist the local medical team in providing life saving emergency care while the road ambulance follows on to transfer the patient to intensive care units in Sheffield, Leeds, Bradford or Hull.

“It can be 90 minutes later before the road ambulance arrives at some of the more distant hospitals in the region. So, the arrangement with Yorkshire Air Ambulance has definitely been a real step-up in our ability to equitably provide a service to the children of Yorkshire and the Humber.”

Yorkshire Air Ambulance is an independent charity providing a rapid response emergency service to five million people across Yorkshire – England’s largest region. It needs to raise £7,200 each day to keep its two helicopters in the air and maintained.

Abby McClymont, Marketing and Communications Manager at YAA, said: “It’s great that the Yorkshire Air Ambulance is able to assist Embrace in its work to help save the lives of babies and children across Yorkshire and the Humber.

“Our ability to fly to a destination as the crow flies means we can dramatically reduce the team’s travelling time to the hospital where the child is being treated, making sure the most specialist care gets to them in the quickest possible time.”

Embrace, which is run by Sheffield Children’s NHS Foundation Trust, provides a 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, transport service for critically ill neonatal and paediatric patients in the Yorkshire and Humber region.

Whilst predominantly a land based service, Embrace also provides an aeromedical service moving patients both within the UK and abroad. Embrace can safely transport premature infants, children and adolescents requiring low dependency, high dependency or intensive care.

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