A NEVILL Hall A&E doctor is heading up a new team of ‘flying doctors,’ who will joining air ambulance paramedics responding to emergencies by air.

Dr Ami Jones, a consultant at the Abergavenny hospital, is in charge of the Swansea helicopter base which serves South Wales.

First minister Carwyn Jones officially cleared the ‘flying doctors’ for take-off this week, the first time consultants will be part of missions by air in Wales.

The teams are able to reach 95 per cent of the population by air and 46 per cent by road within 30 minutes.

Having been operational since the end of April, the ‘flying doctors’ have already completed more than 100 missions on board Wales Air Ambulance’s helicopters.

To date, the team have carried out six blood transfusions and administered more than 20 emergency anaesthetics. More than half of the call-outs have been trauma incidents, such as road accidents.

Upgraded services include new equipment usually only seen in hospitals; new 4x4 emergency response vehicles and an increased range of treatments for seriously-ill and injured people across Wales.

The Welsh Government-funded Emergency Medical Retrieval and Transfer Service Cymru (EMRTS) has become one of the first civilian services of its kind in Europe to carry three separate blood products, allowing the critical care team to carry out blood transfusions at the scene of an emergency. It has also has introduced state-of-the-art monitors, ventilators, blood monitoring apparatus and ultrasound scanners.

The Welsh Government is providing £2.868 million from 2015-16 to support the critical care team.

The Wales Air Ambulance continues to rely on charitable donations to raise the £6 million required each year to keep the air ambulances flying.First minister Carwyn Jones said: “This is a major milestone for the NHS in Wales. The new doctor-led critical care teams will transform our ability to provide the very best care to the most critically-ill patients in Wales.

“They provide patients in remote and rural areas of Wales with rapid access to the skills of a consultant in emergency or intensive care medicine who are equipped to provide life-saving and specialist critical care.”

Dr Dindi Gill, of EMRTS Cymru, said: “This is an excellent example of the chain of survival – having a doctor of the scene is part of that chain. We’re able to offer an enhanced level of care, which improves the chances of a patient recovering better from a neurological point of view and also make sure they get timely access to specialist care.”

Angela Hughes, chief executive of Wales Air Ambulance, said: “Providing a world-class emergency care service is of great importance to the people of Wales, particularly given the number of rural communities we have. These developments will save the lives of many people in urgent need of assistance.