We are Bath’s air ambulance and we are proud to serve and watch over its community.
How do we serve the city of Bath?
Great Western Air Ambulance Charity (GWAAC) is Bath’s air ambulance and we pride ourselves in being able to give an extra level of care to Bath and other communities. We don’t just help those in remote locations or get people to the nearest hospital quickly. Our Critical Care Team is made up of a Specialist Paramedic, Critical Care Doctor and a Helicopter Emergency Pilot, who are all highly trained and able to provide lifesaving interventions at the scene of an incident.We are the air ambulance of B&NES
Three air ambulances responded to call-outs in Bath & North East Somerset in 2022. We attended almost 50% of the incidents.
Read more about the service we provide from Doctor Ed Valentine
”I’m Ed Valentine, the Medical Director for Great Western Air Ambulance Charity. I trained as a Doctor at Southampton University (qualifying in 2002), I then worked as a Junior Doctor for several years before deciding to specialise in Emergency Medicine and Intensive Care. I’ve always had a very strong interest in Pre-Hospital Critical Care Medicine and I joined GWAAC in 2010 as a Doctor very new to Pre-Hospital medicine!
In 2015 I became a Consultant in Emergency Medicine in a very busy Emergency Department and I was appointed as the Lead Base Doctor for GWAAC in 2018. My role involves working alongside our lead Paramedics to ensure that we provide the very best level of care to all our patients, as well as recruiting and developing an amazing team, overseeing clinical governance activities, education and training and the introduction of new technologies and equipment into our skillset.
The GWAAC Critical Care Team is able to deliver many specialist skills and treatments that would usually only be available in a hospital Emergency Department – for example transfusion of blood, providing an emergency general anaesthetic, delivering emergency surgery, administering strong painkillers and sedative drugs. Although thankfully rare, the team are also trained to act in senior leadership roles when major incidents occur within our region.
The Specialist Paramedics at GWAAC have an incredible set of skills and undergo many years of additional training. The addition of doctors to the team allows us to expand this skill set even further and the combination of a Critical Care Doctor and a Specialist Paramedic really does make for a truly excellent team, who can deal with almost any medical or trauma emergency expertly and efficiently.
Having been with the service for almost a quarter of my life, GWAAC means everything to me and I am passionate about what we do and the difference we can make to the lives of people in our community.”
Our crew was called to Bath
and North East Somerset...
...times in 2022
and 51 times by Critical Care Car
Meet GWAAC’s Community Fundraiser for Bath – Ian Cantoni
‘‘It’s a great pleasure to be part of the community team here at GWAAC and I have the good fortune to work with our communities in Bath & North East Somerset. I have been with GWAAC for a few years now and never fail to be amazed by the generosity of people in Bath and beyond.
Some of my favourite GWAAC memories are of our time as Bath City’s FC charity partners, of the people we met, and the big games we got to be a part of. Just like GWAAC, Bath City FC is at the heart of its local community and it was incredibly special to work with all the team at Twerton Park.
A short heli-ride away over the city is the University of Bath, who we have the great pleasure of working with on a number of projects. From being one of their Big Four charities, to the Lloyd’s Scholars charity placement scheme, Bath Half runners to Action Project fundraisers, Bath students always keep us on our toes. The creativity and dynamism students always show makes it a pleasure to have them as part of Team GWAAC.’’
