Emergency services / ‘Clarity’ sought as coastguard helicopter call-outs for air ambulance duties more than double
MP Alistair Carmichael said search and rescue teams were at risk of being stretched too thin
THE COASTGUARD rescue helicopter has seen its call-outs as an air ambulance in Shetland more than double in the space of five years.
The Sumburgh search and rescue team were called to locations throughout the isles to airlift sick or injured patients 53 times in the first 10 months of 2024.
That was over twice the number of call-outs they received in the whole of 2020, just 25, according to figures obtained by Shetland News through a freedom of information (FoI) request.
Shetland’s MP Alistair Carmichael said the coastguard helicopter was not an air ambulance – and should not be treated as such so often.
“The coastguard helicopter substitutes for the air ambulance but it is not an air ambulance,” he told Shetland News.
“We have to be careful not to treat these services as interchangeable or we risk stretching them too thin.”
The Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) declined to comment on the findings of the FoI, and on questions over whether the Sumburgh crew were being stretched too thinly.
It comes as Carmichael prepares to lead a parliamentary debate on the future of the UK’s coastguard helicopter services next Tuesday.
Hugely unpopular plans to quadruple the emergency response times for the Sumburgh crew from 15 minutes to 60 were thrown out in 2023, following a previous debate in parliament.
During that debate the then-Tory government pledged a review of the proposals – due to be published by the end of 2024 – but no details have since been made public.
Responding to the FoI request, figures from the MCA show the Sumburgh crew has seen a steep rise in air ambulance calls.
After attending 25 in 2020, during the Covid pandemic, that figure rose to 37 in both 2021 and 2022.
In 2023 the crew were called to 52 air ambulance requests.
That rose to 53 for the first 10 full months of 2024, with the MCA only providing figures from 1 January to 7 November.
Carmichael has said the people of Shetland “cannot wait any longer” to find out what the future of the Sumburgh crew is – particularly if they are providing essential work on two fronts.
“The planned quadrupling of response times could easily be the difference between life and death at sea,” he said.
“The search-and-rescue helicopter at Sumburgh is a blue light service for the isles, no less than an ambulance or a fire engine is in a major city.
“It is essential to our safety and we cut it at our peril.”
Scottish Ambulance Service (SAS) also provided figures on how many call-outs it has had over the last five years, with 2023/24 showing a drop off as air ambulance calls increased.
The Lerwick ambulance crew attended 1,227 incidents in that year, which was down on the previous three years.
After attending just 1,147 incidents during 2019/20, that figure rose to 1,341 during 2020/21 – the first year of the pandemic.
The Lerwick ambulance responded to slightly fewer incidents over the next two years – 1,334 in 2021/22 and 1,336 the year after – before a drop to 1,227 in the financial year to March 2024.
Carmichael said that clarity was now needed on why there had been an “increase in demand” for the coastguard helicopter to act as an air ambulance.
“If there is a need then there needs to be resource to back it as well,” he said.
“This is another demonstration of how vital the coastguard helicopter service at Sumburgh is, and how wrongheaded MCA proposals to quadruple the response time are – points I shall be making to ministers at the debate on Tuesday.”
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