Formation | January 1, 1971 |
---|---|
Type | NGO |
Legal status | Registered Charity 1119279 |
Purpose | Emergency Medical Provision |
Headquarters | Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, UK |
Coordinates | 52°19′55″N 0°03′47″W / 52.332007°N 0.063123°W |
Region served
|
East Anglia, UK |
Revenue (2015)
|
£3.5 million |
Expenses (2015) | £3.1 million |
Staff (2015)
|
14 |
Volunteers (2015)
|
120 |
Website | www |
Magpas Air Ambulance is an emergency medical charity that provides pre-hospital care by land and air to patients in life-threatening emergencies in the East of England and beyond. The charity is based in Cambridgeshire and is activated to serious medical incidents, using either the air ambulance or rapid response vehicle, across 11 other counties – Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire, Essex, Norfolk, Suffolk, Lincolnshire, Northamptonshire, Leicestershire, Rutland, Oxfordshire and London.
It trains, equips and deploys a doctor-paramedic team to any medical emergency, illness or accident where the NHS Ambulance Service asks for on-scene medical support.
Some of the UK’s expert doctors and paramedics volunteer their own time to work with Magpas Air Ambulance.
The Magpas Air Ambulance medical team receives enhanced training which allows them to offer procedures and treatments at the scene, like general anaesthetics, which are usually only available in a hospital. Magpas Air Ambulance is not a state-funded service and relies on public donations.
Magpas Air Ambulance was founded as the Mid Anglia General Practitioner Accident Service in 1971 by Dr Neville Silverston OBE and Dr Derek Cracknell, who responded to road accidents in their own cars.
The origins of the name relate to a close historical and geographical association with Cambridgeshire Constabulary which, up until 1974, was known as the Mid Anglia Constabulary. The service was originally provided by General Practitioners from across the Mid Anglia area that was activated by the police and ambulance services to attend serious accidents and provide on-scene care. Magpas provided the training, equipment and governance framework. The organisation became a registered charity in 1972. The charity is now simply known as Magpas Air Ambulance after acquiring its own helicopter in 2013.
Within the first five years that Magpas was operational the road accident fatality rate in Mid Anglia fell by 36%.
Neville Silverston
Early Magpas control
Volunteer 1980s
Volunteer 1990s