News Latest news March 2020 - Statement for Devon Air Ambulance supporters This article relates to March 2020. Please refer to the latest news for current updates At this challenging time, the NHS and emergency services are extremely busy. It is essential that we work with them to coordinate the best possible level of healthcare provision. Our primary objective remains to bring the greatest benefit for our patients and the people of Devon. Although we will still be attending and treating both trauma and medical patients, in line with Public Health England’s guidance, we will not be transporting medical patients by air. The most appropriate way to take these patients to hospital is in a land ambulance where full Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) can be worn whilst continuing to treat the patient. In view of the unprecedented demand on our region’s hospitals we have taken the decision to release our doctors back to their host hospitals. The benefit our doctors can bring to patients in the pre-hospital environment is far outweighed by the benefit they can bring within the hospital setting during this pandemic. We are committed to maintaining our service during this pandemic and our main priority is the welfare, health and safety of our patients, supporters, volunteers, staff and the wider community. In the light of this ongoing situation and to protect our staff and volunteers we have taken the decision to cancel all events and talks, suspend our lottery canvassing and box collections and are supporting our staff to work from home. Our shops will also close until further notice from Friday. At present we do not plan to cancel our Motorcycle Ride Out, Dragon Boat Festival or the Royal Marines Commando Challenge, which take place later in the year, but we will monitor the situation. For the time being our head office will be closed to the public from 23rd March until further notice, however, we will be working remotely. If you do call the office please leave a message and someone will get back to you as soon as they can. Likewise, we will be monitoring our [email protected] for general enquiries, [email protected] for any fundraising related enquiries, or lotte[email protected] for any Lottery enquiries and appreciate your patience as we may not be able to respond to you as quickly as we would like. There are more decisions to be made in the coming days and we will do our best to let you know what is happening via our social media channels and website. We know this will have a significant impact on our income through loss of sales and fundraising though it is too soon to know how bad this will be. Suffice to say, we need your help now more than ever. If you are able to help by making a regular or one off donation, here’s how: Make a one-off donation Make a regular donation by direct debit Manage Cookie Preferences