Midlands Air Ambulance Charity’s clinicians and charity staff team recently moved into its new combined airbase and headquarters facility establishing a centre of clinical excellence to future-proof its lifesaving service for years to come.
The new facility, constructed by Morris Property Group, will help future-proof the advanced pre-hospital emergency service operated by Midlands Air Ambulance Charity. It houses the charity’s head office function, airbase and clinical operations and community education zone.
The combined headquarters and airbase also houses a state-of-the-art training simulation suite which is part of its centre for clinical excellence. The suite, kindly supported by The Kildare Trust, enables the charity’s critical care clinicians to practice their specialist skills in an immersive environment.
The fully interactive room uses virtual reality and real-world content to create a diverse range of situations that can be used to simulate accidents or incidents specific to the pre-hospital environment. In addition, the charity’s airbase and headquarters includes energy efficient features such as solar panels across parts of the roof and air source heat pumps.
The charity has also committed to planting 10,000 trees in the local area as it aims to offset part of its carbon footprint. Hanna Sebright, chief executive for Midlands Air Ambulance Charity, said: "Our new airbase and headquarters is a significant milestone in our charity’s 32-year history and is critical to us achieving our mission to provide patients of the Midlands with outstanding pre-hospital care and lifesaving intervention today and into the future.
“We are delighted that our clinicians and non-clinical staff are now able to work out of the same building, as one team, in this wonderful new facility and look forward to welcoming members of the public to visit us in the near future.” Glyn O’Hara, senior contracts manager for Morris Property, which oversaw the build added: “It’s been a privilege to work on this pioneering new airbase and headquarters.
“Projects like this are incredibly rare and our team is very proud of the part it has played in its construction. We are looking forward to seeing the charity move in, which will take it from being a first-class building to a vital new lifesaving facility for our region.”
Initial funding for the new development was secured through major grants from organisations like the County Air Ambulance Trust HELP Appeal, the Denise Coates Foundation, and The Kildare Trust. In addition, the charity undertook specific fundraising campaigns to secure funding for specific areas of the new airbase, with support from Aico, Baylis & Harding, Ibstock Brick and M6toll.
