• Marius Rehn, Gareth Davies, Paul Smith, and David J Lockey.
• London's Air Ambulance, Barts Health Trust, Royal London Hospital, London, UK; The Norwegian Air Ambulance Foundation, Drøbak, Norway; Field of Pre-hospital Critical Care, University of Stavanger, Stavanger, Norway. Electronic address: marius.rehn@bartshealth.nhs.uk.
• Air Med. J. 2016 May 1; 35 (3): 143-7.

ObjectiveEmergency medical vehicle collisions are an inherent risk for health care providers, patients, and other road users. Air ambulance services often use rapid response cars (RRCs) to maintain operational resilience. We aim to describe the operational concept of London's Air Ambulance (LAA) RRCs and activity over a 1-year period.MethodsThis was a retrospective dispatch database study. The RRC operational concept, car configuration, and training are also described.ResultsLAA implemented principles from motorsports and aviation including car configuration, training, navigation, and communication. RRCs were activated a total of 2,241 times during the study period (average of 6.1 activations per day). RRCs traveled a total of 22,973 km and a median of 8.7 km (interquartile range = 5-15.1) with blue lights; there were missing data for 123 (5%) activations. Furthermore, the RRCs spent a total of 28,536 minutes with blue lights and a median of 12 minutes (interquartile range = 7-18); there were missing data for 89 (4%) activations. The safety management system included 5 reports, none of which were related to serious RRC incidents.ConclusionTranslating lessons from aviation and motorsports, LAA has developed an RRC operation concept to improve safety and operational capacity. One-year operational data indicate high activity without any serious incidents.Copyright © 2016 Air Medical Journal Associates. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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