The Wales Air Ambulance Service deserves improved support from the Welsh Government, including direct funding.
The call has been made today by the Welsh Conservatives, just days after the service launched a fundraising campaign to upgrade one of its helicopters.
600,000 pounds is needed to replace and maintain its mid Wales helicopter, based near Newtown.
The air ambulance has three helicopters covering Wales. Its funding comes entirely from public donations. The service has been running for over ten years and as of March 1st 2012, its mission counter stood at 15,212.
In 2011 Assembly election manifesto A New Voice for Wales, the Welsh Conservatives pledged to fund the service by three million pounds a year.
Labour is making record breaking cuts to the Welsh health budget over the next three years – more than a half a billion pounds in real terms. The King’s Fund and Wales Audit Office have confirmed the Welsh NHS faces the toughest national funding settlement in the UK.
Shadow Minister for Health, Darren Millar AM, said:
“Our air ambulance service does an incredible job and doesn’t get the credit it deserves.
“It provides a vital service across Wales and I pay tribute to everything it does. It’s now time for the government to do the same and begin talks on increased support and direct funding of the service.
“It’s astonishing that this issue has never been properly considered by the Welsh Labour Government. It’s a proven life-saver and it’s high-time it moved up the agenda and received the appropriate assistance.”
Mr Millar also condemned the Welsh Government’s handling of the health budget. He said:
“Labour’s slash and burn approach to the health service has resulted in the biggest cuts in its history.
“Tens of millions of pounds will be lost to the NHS in this year alone. A tiny fraction of that would go a long, long way to obtaining and maintaining a new helicopter for mid Wales.
“Instead, we see hundreds of thousands of pounds spent needlessly – and against expert independent advice – on PIP implant removal and replacement.
“180 referrals have so far been received for a service that costs somewhere in the region of 2-2,500 pounds. One potentially life-saving mission for the air ambulance costs around 1,500 pounds.
“Private clinics have a duty of care to their patients. Taxpayers should not needlessly foot the bill for such treatment, unless it is required on clinical grounds.”
Shadow Minister for Environment and Montgomeryshire Assembly Member Russell George said:
“The Wales Air Ambulance is an outstanding service that performs a vital function across the country.
“It has made an exceptional difference to the way health services are delivered in rural areas in particular and it rightly deserves all the support it can get.
“I have had the pleasure of meeting some of the first-rate staff and volunteers who dedicate their lives to this service, 365 days a year.
“I call on the Welsh Government to urgently consider funding the air ambulance and developing the support it receives.”
