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.”

Captured in (and around) Bath...