The community’s support of the Westpac Rescue Helicopter Service (WRHS) helps turn fundraising into readiness, readiness into capability and capability into better support for people in their moment of need.
That support helped the Service complete 812 missions in the first six months of this year across northern NSW. These included 343 responses to medical conditions, 114 motor vehicle accidents, 86 motorcycle-related incidents, 66 falls, 62 missions on the water and 141 other missions.
Each patient was treated by the highly skilled helicopter critical care medical team, comprising a NSW Ambulance critical care paramedic and a NSW Health critical care doctor. Depending on the patient’s specific needs, specialist nursing staff were also on board for some missions.
Jessica Gregory, WRHS Operations Manager, said every day a team of highly skilled people comes together with one shared purpose: to give someone the very best chance when they need it most.
Behind every tasking statistic, every mission, and every helicopter seen overhead, there is a real person whose life has suddenly been turned upside down.
“When the emergency tasking phone rings at our bases in Tamworth, Belmont or Lismore, we never know what will be waiting on the other end,” Jessica said.
A team of fundraisers and more than 800 regional volunteers support the Westpac Rescue Helicopter Service, raising money and awareness to help ensure the five helicopters remain operational 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year.
Importantly, the money raised by volunteers in their local area stays connected to that region and the communities the Service supports. For the Upper Hunter, one of the biggest local fundraisers is the Upper Hunter Rescue Ball this month.
Jessica said the Ball gives local people a way to be part of the Service’s future, not just its present.
“The support raised through the Ball helps invest in the things that make crews safer, more capable and better prepared for complex, remote or time-critical jobs. The Service exists to bring advanced care to people when and where they need it most, and community support helps strengthen the capability around that response.
“When someone is critically injured or seriously unwell, the outcome can be shaped by minutes. Community support helps invest in the training, equipment and readiness that sit behind every response.
“The value of the Ball is that it gives people a tangible way to support the Service before the day they may ever need it. It helps fund the things that are not always visible to the public but are critical to the standard of response the Service can provide,” Jessica said.
Support from the community allows the Service to keep asking what would make the crew safer, what would make the response stronger, and what would better prepare teams for the next difficult job.
“The Upper Hunter Ball is about more than fundraising. It is about connection, awareness and local people standing behind a Service that exists for their region.
“Local support helps create local impact, and that is incredibly important for a regional service.”
