THE Scottish public are being asked to dig deep and help raise funds for the country's first charity-funded air ambulance.
The newly formed Scotland's Charity Air Ambulance (SCAA) has been given the green light by the Scottish Government and the Scottish Ambulance Service (SAS), but needs funding of £1.5 million per year to get it running.
Currently, the Government funds two helicopters and two planes, but it is hoped the charity aircraft will supplement the work of the SAS in delivering its emergency response service.
The charity is calling on businesses, communities and individuals to donate to help fund the service, which is expected to be in place by spring next year.
SCAA chairman, Perth businessman John Bullough, said: "This will be the people's air ambulance, funded by the public and supported by communities the length and breadth of the country who recognise the value of fast-reaction medical air support in the face of mishap, illness and tragedy.
"We will be looking to corporations, trusts, businesses, communities and the public in general in the weeks, months and years to come to keep this additional air resource flying."
The new air ambulance will be based at Perth Airport at Scone and staffed by SAS workers whose wages will be paid by the charity.
Health Secretary Alex Neil welcomed the charity's work, and said: "In a country like Scotland with its island, remote and rural areas, it is important we work collaboratively with partners to support community resilience."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article