Midlands Air Ambulance Charity Supports Fight Fatigue Campaign

Midlands Air Ambulance Charity has today signed up to the national Fight Fatigue campaign to help raise awareness of fatigue amongst NHS healthcare staff.

The campaign, run in partnership with the Association of Anaesthetists, the Royal College of Anaesthetists and the Faculty of Intensive Care Medicine, aims to tackle the negative effects of shift working and fatigue on the NHS workforce.

Midlands Air Ambulance Charity is the first air ambulance charity in the UK to sign up to the scheme and has backed the initiative because a large proportion of the independent healthcare provider’s bank of pre-hospital emergency medicine specialist doctors are anaesthetists, working long hours in their NHS roles.

The charity’s medical director, Mark Nash said: “Our cohort of doctors are primarily made up of consultant anaesthetists who work in NHS positions for the majority of their work. We are committed to mental and physical wellbeing of all our staff, which is why we have pledged our support to the Fight Fatigue campaign.”

The Fight Fatigue campaign was launched in 2019 following the tragic death of a trainee anaesthetist while they drove home tired following a night shift.

A subsequent national survey of over 2,000 anaesthetic trainees found:

• Nearly three-quarters of respondents reported fatigue had a negative effect on their physical health or psychological well-being
• 84% had felt too tired to drive home safely after a night shift
• Less than a third had access to a suitable rest facility
• 57% had experienced an accident or near miss when driving home after a night shift

Association of Anaesthetists President, Dr Matt Davies, said: “I’m delighted that Midlands Air Ambulance Charity is officially supporting our Fight Fatigue campaign and we look forward to working with them to help raise awareness of the issues related to fatigue.

“We want to change attitudes across the NHS to ensure everyone understands the risks of fatigue and how to mitigate against them. We hope that by taking responsibility collectively for making changes to working practice, we can improve working conditions for all staff which will in turn benefit patient care.

“We now have increasing support from organisations representing a wide range of specialties across the NHS. We also have support from parliamentarians across the political spectrum at Westminster and the devolved bodies. We urge all our colleagues in the NHS to back our campaign and ensure everyone understands the risks of fatigue and how to mitigate them.”

Find out more about the Fight Fatigue Campaign here.