Emergency flights

The number of occasions I have seen the air ambulance on visits to Southampton General Hospital, I can count on the fingers of one hand.
Yet this week I have spotted it on three separate occasions.
It lands on  a specially constructed helipad on the top floor of  the hospital’s multi storey car park, just yards from the hospital’s Accident and Emergency department, so is easily spotted when it lands.
Fortunately, I have never had to call on its services, but I am full of admiration for its crew and the operation behind it.
I am told it is airborne within four minutes and can reach any part of Hampshire from its base within 15 minutes, and just five minutes more to be in the Isle of Wight.
But along with a similar helicopter in neighbouring Thames Valley, it has just been cleared for night time operations, and the two provide emergency cover across the counties of Hampshire,  the Isle of Wight, Berkshire, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire for 19 hours a day, 365 days a year from 7am to 2am. They are crewed by pilots, paramedics and doctors