THREE new critical care doctors have been recruited by Hampshire and Isle of Wight Air Ambulance to help cope with increasing patient demand.

In its commitment to responding to its patients’ needs, the charity aims to provide a fully staffed doctor and paramedic crew every day and night.

The combination of a highly skilled paramedic and experienced doctor creates a uniquely skilled team perfectly suited to the unpredictable nature of the pre-hospital environment. This ensures patients receive the very best care on what can be the worst day of their lives.

Dr Jonathan Morris, Dr Anna Barrow and Dr Chris Beng each come with experience in different medical backgrounds, ranging from emergency medicine and anaesthesia to paediatrics, and have all worked for other air ambulance services in either the UK or overseas.

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Two of the doctors are already on board and have been attending the most critically ill and severely injured patients across Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, with the third member of the team due to start flying in February 2023.

Dr Morris joins the charity as a consultant anaesthetist having worked as an air ambulance doctor in Sydney, Australia.

He said: “I am thrilled to be joining Hampshire and Isle of Wight Air Ambulance. I am excited to be working with such an inspiring team who are so passionate about providing the best critical care to the people in our region, whenever and wherever they need it. I feel truly privileged to be able to do this job, which would not be possible without the amazing support from our local community – thank you.”

The charity aims to have a doctor on board every flight from its airbase in Thruxton, Andover, to aid with scene leadership, supporting complex decision making and performing the advanced procedural intervention, ranging from open heart surgery to amputations, all at the scene of an emergency. The doctors work as part of a team of specialist paramedics, pilots and dispatch assistants.

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Earlier this year the service extended its flying hours to 19 hours a day, 365 days a year. This was previously shared with another air ambulance service on a fortnightly basis.

Hampshire and Isle of Wight Air Ambulance receive no government or NHS funding and rely entirely on support from the public to keep it flying and saving lives.

To support the charity or for more information, visit hiowaa.org