MORE critically ill and injured people are surviving en-route to hospital after receiving a blood transfusion at the roadside.

Great Western Air Ambulance has been carrying blood on board its helicopter and critical care cars for a year.

During this time 62 pre-hospital blood transfusions have been carried out across Bristol, Bath and North East Somerset, North Somerset, Gloucestershire, South Gloucestershire and parts of Wiltshire, significantly improving patients' chances of survival.

Of the 62 transfusions 84 percent were trauma cases, 13 percent medical and 3 percent a mixture of both.

Dr Harvey Pynn, of GWAAC, said: “Reviewing the 62 cases for those patients who have received a pre-hospital blood transfusion in this area, I have no doubt in my mind that lives have been saved as a result of this intervention.

"We will endeavour to prove this statistically in time and will develop our practices to optimise the use of this precious life saving asset.”

Before it began carrying blood GWAAC estimated it would benefit between two and four patients a month but, in the first year of carrying blood, pre-hospital blood transfusions were given on average to five patients a month.

Each day two units of O negative blood is collected from the North Bristol Trust Transfusion Laboratory at Southmead Hospital and delivered to GWAAC’s airbase in Filton by the charity Freewheelers EVS, which covers the south west.

Mel Rowbottom, a trustee of Freewheelers EVS, said: “Our volunteers have done a fantastic job, fulfilling their commitment to provide the essential relay link to move the blood supplies between Southmead Hospital and the air ambulance crews, whether at the base or meeting them en-route to a callout.

"The volunteers have ensured the delivery occurred every night in all types of weather and get a huge sense of pride knowing they played their part in helping to save lives.

"There is a great rapport between all the charity partners and Southmead which has allowed the service to easily evolve to meet changing operational requirements over the past 12 months, and we look forward to developing the service further over the next 12 months.”

If the blood is not used, it will be returned to Southmead Hospital by the volunteer blood bikers after 24 hours. The blood storage boxes maintain the temperature of the blood within in very narrow limits for well over 24 hours. Any unused blood units are put back into the Southmead Hospital blood bank, preventing waste.

GWAAC has been providing an air ambulance service for 2.1 million people in the south west for eight years.

Its critical care team consists of a highly trained and experienced critical care paramedic and doctor, who bring the skill and expertise of an Accident and Emergency Department to the patient.

In 2015 the critical care team attended 1,655 jobs: 632 by helicopter and 1,023 by one of the critical care cars. It is estimated one in five people who would otherwise die are saved by the actions of the GWAAC clinical team.

The charity needs to raise £2.3million each year to stay operational as it does not get day-to-day funding from the Government or National Lottery.