July 2021 marks the busiest month in over four years for EAAA

EAAA has revealed that July was the charity’s busiest month on record in over four years and EAAA’s busiest ever July.

The air ambulance charity, which has two teams covering Norfolk, Suffolk, Cambridgeshire and Bedfordshire, was tasked 266 times across the region in July. This was 38 times more than in June, where the charity was tasked 228 times, a 16% increase month on month. In comparison, in July 2020 the charity was tasked 247 times and in July 2019 235 times, making July 2021 EAAA’s busiest ever July.

With more people staying in the UK this summer the demand on resources like the air ambulance is expected to increase. In addition, this period covers the charity’s first month of 24/7 flying, making the medical teams available to more people by helicopter during the early hours of the morning. The top three reasons for calling out the air ambulance teams in July were; medical emergency, cardiac arrest and accidental injury.

Matthew Jones, CEO of EAAA, commented: “It’s not surprising that our teams have been particularly busy in July with the number of people staying in the UK this summer, and choosing to holiday in this part of the world, much higher than normal. We’re only a few weeks into August and already it’s feeling like a very busy August, too. On 30th June we also started flying throughout the night for the first time, making our operation 24/7 by air and by road. This is certainly adding to the number of missions we can now attend overnight and is part of the reason for the increase we’re seeing here.