EMERGENCY services from across the East of England took part in a mock accident yesterday (June 19) to test the newly permitted night-time use of the region’s air ambulance.

The Hunts Post: Air ambulance staff take casualty aboard after staged accidentAir ambulance staff take casualty aboard after staged accident (Image: Archant)

The “live play”, which took place at Conington Airfield in Peterborough, saw the region’s police, firefighters and paramedics work with the East Anglian Air Ambulance (EAAA) to tackle a staged road accident with actors and dummies.

Patients were cut out of their vehicles and treated at the scene before one was loaded in to the aircraft in order to be flown to hospital.

All those who took part in the role play were asked to respond as they would in a real emergency and were observed by officers assessing how the teams reacted to what they encountered.

Gerry Hermer, aviation lead from the EAAA, said: “We’re extremely grateful to the other emergency services for coming out and helping us to test our night time procedures.

“Exercises like this are an essential part of training our pilots and clinical teams before they respond to incidents like this and all of us have benefited from this evening.”

Last month EAAA became the first dedicated air ambulance in the country to be granted permission to fly at night.

As a result the charity says that it will be able to attend 30 per cent more incidents, helping 300 extra patients a year.

This is the first of many exercises that will be taking place around the region to prepare emergency services for air ambulance involvement in night time rescues.

INFORMATION: If you would like to know more about the work of the East Anglian Air Ambulance visit www.eaaa.org.uk or call 08450 669 999 to find out about the wide range of volunteering opportunities within the Charity or for help organising an event. You can also follow EAAA on twitter @EastAngliAirAmb or ‘like’ the East Anglian Air Ambulance Charity Facebook page.