Cornwall Air Ambulance - Beginnings

Beginnings

The idea for Cornwall’s air ambulance originated during a major review of the Cornwall Ambulance Service and was one of the recommendations in the report published in April 1986. It was not, however, a new idea. In 1986 helicopter air ambulances had been in use for about fifteen-years in various other countries. When Cornwall’s started operating on 1 April 1987 it was the first in the UK.

The Cornwall Ambulance Service was part of the Cornwall & Isles of Scilly District Health Authority’s Primary Care & Community Services unit under David Green, the recently appointed general manager. In the autumn of 1985 Green and a team of doctors and senior ambulance officers with external consultancy support from the Management Advisory Service to the NHS were reviewing ambulance service performance and how to implement a national ambulance service salary structure. Their report ‘Proposals for the future organisation of patient transport services in Cornwall’ became known as the MAS Report (April 1986). It recommended fundamental reorganisation of the ambulance service and various other options, including introduction of a helicopter air ambulance.

Green took the report to the DHA meeting on 14 May 1986 for approval to proceed with the recommendations. The report attracted fierce public debate and on the day of the DHA meeting BBC Radio Cornwall interviewed Green and Len Holden, his Chief Ambulance Officer (in post since 1974 and now part of Green’s organisation), about the specific proposal for the introduction of a helicopter air ambulance for inter hospital transfers. The concept of using a helicopter to augment the day to day ambulance service's operations was not considered until Len Holden suggested it to Geoff Newman in the late summer of 1986 when he was researching the possibility of setting up the UK's first Air Ambulance. Ex-Fleet Air Arm pilot Newman, now working as a freelance helicopter pilot, was based in Cornwall. He was retained by Bond Helicopters Limited, initially as their local project manager and then as their pilot. During the autumn Green, Holden and Newman continued the discreet preparatory work to introduce the air ambulance as a joint venture between the DHA and Bond Helicopters Limited.

Newman drafted a contract document that was presented to Green in November 1986. On 24th November 1986 Green took his confidential paper ‘Helicopter Emergency Medical Service for Cornwall’ (reference DRG/LC/12.11.86) to the DHA’s Corporate Management Group and then to the full DHA on 10 December 1986. Six days later the contract with Bond Helicopters Limited was signed and the helicopter started operations just under four months later on 1 April 1987.