Campaigners launch legal challenge to Air Ambulance decision

The campaign to save Welshpool and Caernarfon Air Ambulance bases will launch a legal challenge to the “fundamentally flawed decision taken” by the NHS Wales Joint Commissioning Committee (JCC) last week to close both bases.

Wales Air Ambulance says closing the two bases in favour of a centralised one in north east Wales will save lives, but campaigners have regrouped and said they are in the early stages of taking legal advice before launching a judicial review.

Such a review can cost tens of thousands of pounds, and the statement released by the campaign said that the decision has been taken “with a heavy heart”.

In an update to supporters this morning, the campaign group wrote:

“With a heavy heart, we agreed that the most appropriate course of action now is to begin the process of seeking a Judicial Review. This is a complex and potentially costly process, and we have already begun to seek professional advice on the first stages of that journey.

“The reconfiguration of Air Ambulance Critical Care services in Wales, from a point before any of us had heard of the proposal to close the bases, has been a process filled with bias, misinformation and misdirection.

“A Judicial Review would allow a judge to re-evaluate the decision-making process and we believe it would bring much needed transparency and objectivity and examine to what extent the process delivered a predetermined outcome.

“There will be phases during this process that will require us to raise significant extra sums of money in order to pay the costs, and we hope that supporters of the campaigns to retain and enhance Critical Care services where they are so desperately needed will help us with that, as they have done to-date.

It is expected that a Crowdfunding page will be set up to raise the required sums of money to kick start the review.

“The fact that we will be asking for any money at all is something that really saddens us.

“However, without a formal review of this process, we know that people and communities in Mid and North West Wales will lose timely access to this essential service when they need it most, and we are left with little other option.

“We do not need any additional funds yet, as we are receiving preliminary advice through the generosity of those giving it. When the time comes to crowdfund, we will put a call out. In the meantime, if you feel that you have skills, knowledge or information that would be useful in these next steps, please do get in touch.”

If the decision stands, Welshpool’s base is expected to close in 2026.