Essex & Herts Air Ambulance feeling quarter of a million cost pressure due to rising fuel costs
They say there is a noticeable increase to their million-pound-a-month operating costs
Essex & Herts Air Ambulance Trust is feeling a "cost pressure of at least a quarter of a million pounds this year" due to rising fuel costs.
The charity's CEO Mark Jarman-Howe, has thanked community goodwill and donations, that are allowing them to "weather this pressure in the short term."
He said that the charity's commitment to being at every possible incident they can will not be impacted, despite "noticeable" rising costs.
"Obviously for us, the helicopters and the rapid response vehicles that we use to support the clinical team and the crew to get from A to B is a significant cost for the charity and the charity is entirely reliant on community goodwill to be able to operate.
"And we already need to raise over £1 million pounds every month just to keep going. So for us, the increase in the fuel bill this year has been really noticeable."
"We're facing a cost pressure of at least quarter of a million pounds this year across aviation and diesel."
He said that at some points of the year so far, prices have been as much as double what they were paying last year.
The Air Ambulance CEO reassured people that they are committed to being at every possible incident.
"Essex & Herts Air Ambulance is absolutely focused on being there when people need us and our goal is to respond to as many missions across the year as possible.
"In a typical year, it's about two and a half thousand missions that we deliver each year, 365 days a year, 24-7.
"We're in a position where we can weather this pressure in the short term. And we've been grateful for the fact we've had a number of donations this year that have referenced the fuel cost pressures. So that's amazing that people are so generous.
"What I'm worried about is that at some point, the situation, if it continues to deteriorate, will mean that supply of fuel is affected and there's not a lot that we can do about that if we can't get the fuel.
"If this becomes a multi-year situation, then at some point we may have to make some difficult choices. But thankfully, we're not at that point just yet."