Essex and Herts Air Ambulance

Who we are

Your local
life-saving charity

Essex & Herts Air Ambulance, unlike NHS emergency services, is a charity. The free life-saving service is provided 24/7 by helicopters and by rapid response vehicles.

Each critical care team consists of a pilot and co-pilot, a pre-hospital care doctor and a critical care paramedic.

They can be rushed to the scene with life-saving support equipment to deliver advanced clinical care, usually only available in the hospital emergency department.

Once stabilised, the patient will be conveyed to the most appropriate hospital by air or land.

n average, we treat 1,900 patients every year, with our HEMS team dispatched approximately seven times per day across Essex, Hertfordshire and surrounding areas.

We strive to save lives, reduce or prevent disability, or suffering from critical illness and injury, by delivering a first-class pre-hospital emergency medical service, but we rely on the goodwill and generosity of people and businesses in our local communities to keep our life-saving service operational. With two helicopters and a fleet of rapid response vehicles (RRVs), our life-saving service is available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Each base works a twelve-hour helicopter shift when daylight hours allow. The shift continues in a rapid response vehicle (RRV) when daylight hours are reduced.