Air Ambulance set up costs revealed

Northern Ireland based air ambulance charity 'Ireland Air Ambulance' spent almost 90% of it's first year funding in set up costs without having government backing it has been revealed. The operation which intends to launch a cross border air ambulance service in November of this year raised £700,000 in it's first year but spent over £500,000 in buying and managing thousands of charity collection boxes.

Northern Ireland's Health Minister, Michael McGimpsey said that he had 'no plans to provide for a publicly funded air ambulance service', adding that the priority is to modernise and upgrade the road ambulance service to allow it to provide the best possible outcome for patients. He also confirmed that officials from his department had met with the helicopter service, known as Alpha 5 but with no commitment being given by the DoH to support the project.

The £500,000 was spent on buying and providing security for 15,000 collection boxes along with operating an office in West Belfast and hiring a full time member of staff.

A spokesman for IAA siad that while the organisation would like to see 100% of funding being directed towards the operating costs of the helicpter and crew there were costs associated with setting up the charity which could not be avoided but which would be minimised.