Devon's Air Ambulance get 2 critical care cars

They'll be on the road next month.

The two new vehicles mean critical care teams can still provide specialist life-saving care by road, when the helicopters can't fly. 
 

The charity applied for nearly £250,000 from a special Government fund for air ambulance services. 

It has allowed them to buy the two Volvos and 35 public access defibrilators. 
 
Nigel Hare, Operations Director, said “The two fully-equipped Volvo XC90 Critical Care Cars (CCC) have now arrived and will shortly be going into service (2nd March)  These CCCs provide resilience and capability across our geographically large county when one of our aircraft is unable to fly. This development ensures our highly skilled critical care paramedics and doctors, and their advanced life-saving equipment, mirroring the medical equipment on board our aircraft, can still be delivered to scene, improving the clinical outcomes for patients.  

“The CCCs are very safe, fast, and equipped with all that’s needed for our teams to deliver life-saving treatment to a patient. They are fitted with blue lights and warning sirens and our teams have also undergone extensive enhanced emergency response ‘blue light’ driver training.” 

Darren Goodwin, Operations Manager said “We undertook a lot of research for this project, looking at the vehicles similar services were using and what would be the best fit for Devon. The Volvo XC90, which is also used by many other emergency services, was the best fit for our service.  We would like to thank Volvo UK for their help and support with this project and of course the Department of Health for the grant given which allowed us to buy these lifesaving vehicles.”