Wiltshire Air Ambulance has confirmed that the precautionary testing of the company’s helicopter and airbase have confirmed no contamination of Novichok has been identified.
The air ambulance airbase, located in Semington, England, was closed temporarily and the helicopter was grounded on Aug. 1 for testing to take place, as part of the ongoing operation into the Amesbury poisoning.
The ambulance provision to the public was unaffected during this period as the charity’s paramedics and doctors remained fully operational providing critical care in Wiltshire by using rapid response cars. The cars have the same specialist medical equipment that is on-board the helicopter.
The base and the helicopter began operating as normal on Aug. 15, 2018.
Deputy chief constable Paul Mills, who is leading the multi-agency response to the incident, said, “It is important to again stress that the testing forms part of the wider response to the incident and was undertaken on a precautionary basis — the air ambulance was not used to respond to the initial incident.
“The advice from Public Health England has not changed since the start of this incident – the risk to the public remains low.
“I was never in doubt that the excellent level of service the people of Wiltshire receive from our medical colleagues would be unaffected.
“We will now continue to work with a range of partner agencies to progress work at other sites in the county which still form part of this ongoing investigation.
“I would like to once again thank the people of Wiltshire for their patience, support and understanding as we continue to work through our multi-agency response to this major incident.”
Chief executive officer of Wiltshire Air Ambulance David Philpott said: “We are of course delighted with this news and I would like to take this opportunity to thank colleagues at Wiltshire Council, Wiltshire Police, South Western Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust and DSTL for the swift and professional way they have all worked with us during this challenging period.
“It is too early to say if these events have had a detrimental impact on our fundraising but know how much the people of Wiltshire value our life saving service so know we can count on them to keep us flying.”
