Airedale Hospital: Trust says new helipad would save lives

The current landing site in a field "can often get very boggy when wet", said the hospital trust

Building a new helipad at a West Yorkshire Hospital "would help save lives", an NHS trust has said.

Plans for a helipad at Airedale Hospital, in Steeton near Keighley, have been submitted to Bradford Council.

Currently air ambulances have to land on a field near the hospital and transfer patients by ambulance.

The Airedale NHS Foundation Trust said building a helipad next to the hospital would "cut minutes off the journey".

'Very boggy'

The trust's application said the current landing site had "no dedicated landing markers, nor lighting, and can often get very boggy when wet making flight safety during landing and take off more challenging".

"Ultimately, it will help save lives and provide essential acute care for vulnerable patients," it said.

If approved, a new helipad would be built on a car park area at the north east of the hospital site next to the Accident and Emergency department.

The trust said it would provide an alternative to sending patients to Leeds General Infirmary where many patients who require an air ambulance are landed.

The hospital previously had a helipad on part of the site, built in 2004.

It was later de-commissioned partly due to changes in the size of the air ambulance helicopters that wanted to land at the hospital, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.

The hospital takes patients from a large area of the Yorkshire Dales and other parts of North Yorkshire, parts of Bradford and Guiseley in West Yorkshire, and also Colne and Pendle in East Lancashire.

A decision on the application is expected in October.