Scotland's Charity Air Ambulance records busiest ever year
- Published
The charity's two air ambulances are based in Perth and Aberdeen
Scotland's Charity Air Ambulance (SCAA) has recorded its busiest ever year, with crews deployed 810 times in 2021.
The charity said it was a 76% rise on the previous year's workload for crews at its Perth and Aberdeen bases.
It said 333 people were airlifted in 2021, an increase of 140, with almost three quarters flown to Scotland's four Major Trauma Centres.
The charity said traumatic injury accounted for 40% of call outs, the majority of which were road collisions.
Other trauma emergencies attended by the SCAA included 97 falls, 23 industrial accidents, and 24 equestrian-related injuries.
SCAA said 160 missions involved air transfers from remote or island locations to advanced mainland hospital care.
The majority of emergencies attended by the charity's air ambulance helicopters were in the Highland, Grampian and Tayside health board areas.
The charity, funded entirely by public donations, is now in its ninth year of operation.
SCAA chief executive David Craig said: "We expected to become increasingly busy as the country returned to some semblance of normality following lockdown, but the demands on our two helicopters and rapid response vehicles have been considerable throughout 2021."