HELP Appeal, May 03, 2021 - The Queen Elizabeth University Hospital’s helipad in Glasgow has seen 1514 landings since it first opened in 2015.
This is an average of nearly five helicopter landings every week including from the Scotland’s Charity Air Ambulance and Coastguard services. This is over 1.5 times more landings every week compared to 2015 – 2017, when around three landings were taking place every seven days.
In 2020, the Glasgow helipad was the fourth busiest out of the 36 funded by the HELP Appeal, which is the only charity in the country funding hospital helipads and contributed a total of £700,000 to help fund its construction.
The rooftop helipad enables patients across Scotland with critical illnesses or injuries to be flown directly to the hospital to receive immediate lifesaving treatment.
Robert Bertram, Chief Executive of the HELP Appeal says: “The high number of landings on this helipad confirms how integral this helipad is to Major Trauma Care in the Glasgow region. The lifesaving partnership between the hospital, helicopters and helipad ensures that every patient that lands at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital gets the best possible chance of surviving their serious injury or illness.”
The HELP Appeal has funded or is funding 12 helipads in Scotland, including at Campbeltown Hospital; the Royal Hospital for Children and Young People and the Department of Clinical Neuroscience which also serves the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh; Raigmore Hospital, and in remote communities on the Isles of Barra, Arran, Mull and Applecross. The charity has also donated £200,000 towards portable landings lights for Scotland’s Air Ambulance Service for 20 island locations across Scotland.
The HELP Appeal has funded 42 helipads across Britain in total including 36 NHS hospital helipads, which have seen 17,100 landings.
The charity relies solely on charitable donations and does not receive a single penny in government funding or from the National Lottery.