Hampshire and Isle of Wight Air Ambulance hope to reach more patients in move to new base
The Hampshire and Isle of Wight Air Ambulance are telling us the move to the new base this year will help them to reach incidents faster
The air ambulance service are telling us they hope to reach many more patients as they prepare for their air base move.
They're telling us with 70% of the patients being South of Winchester, they hope the new Southampton base will mean they can get to incidents faster.
The new base will be near to Southampton Airport.
Nick Gray, Clinical Paramedic Lead for the service, said: "With 70% of our patients south of Winchester, it makes sense to be down there to get to those patients quicker.
"We will still be more than available for patients in the north of the county by air.
"The actual flight time is not a great deal more, so there won't be a noticeable difference for our Northern patients.
"Then again, one of our unique selling points is that we're Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, so we really want to be servicing those patients from the Isle of Wight, on that strip of water.
"It can be a bit of a barrier to specialist services and we're really keen on lessening inequality in healthcare."
The charity is still raising money as part of Operation Airbase to help the move, and aim to raise £3.6 million.