Air Ambulances UK has renewed its call for the Government to guarantee round-the-clock access to on-site hospital helipads, ahead of Air Ambulance Week, which runs from 7 to 13 September. The charity's chief executive, Mike McGrath, set out the demand in an article published on 2 September by PoliticsHome, which labelled the piece partner content. The charity says it will hold an event in Room S, Portcullis House, on Tuesday 8 September from 11am to 1pm, in alignment with the all-party parliamentary groups for air ambulances and for aviation.

The campaign rests on a report published on 2 June by the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Air Ambulances, Critical Moments, Life-Saving Infrastructure: The Case for Safeguarded 24/7 On-Site Hospital Helipads, which found a national gap in helipad provision at major trauma centres and specialist hospitals.

The report assessed 43 hospitals. It found that 53% of those sites were either unable, or not consistently able, to provide full operational capability for 24/7 helipad access, and that 37% either lacked round-the-clock access altogether or had no operational helipad. Seven sites currently require, or are expected to require within the year, a new helipad. The figures are a snapshot taken at the time of publication and cover only the sites the group chose to assess, not all UK major trauma centres.

The group is chaired by Pete Wishart, the SNP MP, with vice-chairs including the Conservative MP David Reed. All-party groups are informal cross-party bodies rather than committees of the House, and their publications carry no parliamentary status. The report drew research contributions from Air Ambulances UK, the individual air ambulance charities, the HELP Appeal and the University of Liverpool's Flight Science and Technology Group. It calls for coordinated action across the Department of Health and Social Care, the Department for Transport and the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government.

Writing for PoliticsHome, McGrath said:

"The report is not primarily about securing large-scale capital funding."

He has said what is needed instead is national direction and coordination from government.

The report has generated a run of written parliamentary questions. Reed asked the Health Secretary whether he would meet the group to discuss its findings, and Sir John Hayes asked what steps the department was taking to ensure major trauma centres and specialist hospitals in Lincolnshire had on-site helipad access; both were tabled for answer on 8 June. The Liberal Democrat MP Edward Morello tabled a further set on 6 July, asking how many major trauma hospitals in England operate 24-hour helipads, whether it would become policy that all should, and whether funding was available for upgrades allowing night-time operation. Two of his questions, on planning permission for extended operating hours and on protecting helipads from planning restrictions, were transferred to MHCLG. Answers were given by the health minister Karin Smyth on 13 July, and by the MHCLG ministers Matthew Pennycook and Keir Mather on 14 and 15 July.

Robert Bertram, chief executive of the HELP Appeal, which funds hospital helipads, told Health Estate Journal in June: "We strongly support the report's call for longer operating hours and safeguarded 24/7 access to hospital helipads."

Helipad operating hours were raised in the Commons in October 2025, in a debate on community helipads and rural access, when a minister noted that the guidance for hospital helipads, CAP 1264, is not mandatory.

The campaign is also supported by a petition hosted on 38 Degrees rather than the parliamentary petitions site, which carries no threshold obliging a Government response or a debate.