Essex & Herts Air Ambulance Trust (EHAAT) is a charity air ambulance service providing a free, life-saving Helicopter Emergency Medical Service (HEMS) for the critically ill and injured of Essex, Hertfordshire and surrounding areas.

This article relies excessively on references to primary sources. (September 2020)

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Essex & Herts Air Ambulance Trust

Founded	1997
Type	Charitable organisation
Location	Earls Colne, Essex North Weald Airfield, Essex[1]
Area served	East Anglia and London: (mainly Essex and Hertfordshire)
Chief Executive Officer	Jane Gurney
Aircraft operated	AgustaWestland AW169 MD902 Explorer
Revenue (2022)	£15.5 million[2]
Staff (2022)	64[2]
Volunteers (2022)	412[2]
Website	www.ehaat.org

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The charity aims to save lives, reduce or prevent disability or suffering from critical illness and injury, by delivering a first class pre-hospital emergency medical service.

Since fundraising began in 1997, Essex & Herts Air Ambulance has flown over 20,000 missions,^[3] and is deployed, on average, six times per day. The helicopters and rapid response vehicles (RRV) are based at Earls Colne Airfield and North Weald Airfield.^[4]

The Essex Air Ambulance Charity was established and began fundraising in 1997, launching as a dual-paramedic and single-pilot service from New Hall School in Boreham, Essex in July 1998.^[4] In 1999, the service began operating seven days a week, during daylight hours, as opposed to the previous five-day service.

In 2003, the Essex Air Ambulance was upgraded to a Eurocopter EC135 T2.^[4]

In April 2007, the Essex Air Ambulance charity became known as the Essex & Herts Air Ambulance Trust, responsible for both the Essex and the new Hertfordshire air ambulance services. The Hertfordshire air ambulance was introduced on 5 November 2008.^[5] With the launch of the Hertfordshire aircraft, Essex's operational colour stayed as yellow and Hertfordshire gained red – both of which featured on the helicopters G-EHAA and G-HAAT.

Doctors were introduced to the Essex Air Ambulance Air crew in July 2008.^[4] This doctor/critical care paramedic model is used on both aircraft at all times. Pre-hospital care doctors could then work alongside specially trained critical care paramedics from the EEAST to optimise patient outcome. Doctors are employed by Mid Essex Hospital NHS Trust, on behalf of EHAAT – except for a team of consultants, who are seconded from some of their hospital work. Paramedics are provided by EEAST. All paramedics are trained to critical care qualification, while doctors have a sub-speciality in Pre-hospital emergency medicine. The team of doctors also included a small number of consultants.^[6]

In 2011, The Essex Air Ambulance's operational base moved from Boreham to Earls Colne Airfield and the charity head office and Essex fundraising team moved to Earls Colne Business Park in March 2015.^[4]

In March 2017, to coincide with the charity's 20 year anniversary, a new brand was launched which unified Essex and Hertfordshire's previously separate identities to signify the united future of the charity.^[4]

From October 2019, the critical care team became available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. This was the first time in the charity’s 21-year history that was able to provide a fully 24/7 aeromedical service to the people of Essex, Hertfordshire and the surrounding areas

Essex & Herts Air Ambulance (EHAAT) provides Helicopter Emergency Medical Service (HEMS) seven days a week, from 7 am until 8 pm. The charity operates two helicopters, a MD 902 Explorer based at Earls Colne airfield and an AgustaWestland AW169 at North Weald airfield.

During the hours of darkness an EHAAT Rapid Response Vehicle (RRV) based at North Weald is used from 7:30 pm to 7:30 am. RRVs are also operational for the hours where the aircraft is unable to fly in bad weather or maintenance.

EHAAT works in partnership with the East of England Ambulance Service (EEAST) who monitor incoming 999 calls and, according to clinical need, dispatch the critical care team from the critical care desk based in the emergency operation centre (EOC) at Broomfield Hospital. The desk is staffed by a critical care paramedic and a dispatcher to ensure appropriate tasking.^[7]

The helicopters take off within two minutes of the emergency call being received at the airbase. The helicopter based at Earls Colne can reach the farthest point in Essex in less than 20 minutes and the helicopter based at North Weald can reach the farthest point in Hertfordshire in less than 15 minutes. The helicopters and RRVs can also carry medical equipment and drugs, much of which will not be found on standard land ambulances – along with the specially trained doctor in pre-hospital emergency medicine, who can perform life-saving open heart surgery and general anaesthesia at the roadside.^[8]

Essex & Herts Air Ambulance utilises two helicopters and four rapid response cars to transport their pre-hospital care teams. Both current helicopters entered service in August 2017. The helicopters have the ability to access remote parts of Essex and Hertfordshire quickly, unaffected by road traffic congestions. The helicopters can also reach areas inaccessible to land vehicles including woods, beaches, docks and golf courses. A new AW169 has been announced, which is due to replace their current MD902 in just a couple of weeks.

In the year ended March 2022, EHAAT's income was £15.5 million, including £5,000 of government grants, against expenditure of £12.1M, of which £7.2M was spent on delivering the emergency service.^[2]

This charity is one of many pre-hospital care providers in the East of England region, which has an established trauma network – the first to be fully operational in the UK after the London Trauma Network.^{[citation needed]}

Other pre-hospital care providers that they work and train alongside are:

• BASICS Essex Accident Rescue Service (BEARS) Archived 24 January 2018 at the Wayback Machine
• BASICS Hertfordshire Archived 24 December 2017 at the Wayback Machine
• Suffolk Accident Rescue Service (SARS)
• Magpas Air Ambulance
• East Anglian Air Ambulance

The East of England teams commonly end up working alongside crews from Lincolnshire & Nottinghamshire Air Ambulance, London's Air Ambulance and The Air Ambulance Service, along with other BASICS charities.

• Air ambulances in the United Kingdom