- Ambulance service
Helimed house
Assessment report published 19 June 2026
Contents
Ratings - Emergency and urgent care
Our view of the service
Helimed House is operated by East Anglian Air Ambulance (EAAA) Service. It is based in Norwich and provides urgent and emergency care for people involved in serious incidents or places that are hard to reach by road in Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Norfolk and Suffolk counties. It operates an air ambulance to provide critical and urgent care to people involved in serious incidents or in places hard to reach by road. The service also has 2 emergency road vehicles (critical care cars) that enables the service to reach people when the air ambulance is unable to fly or in areas where it is inaccessible for the air ambulance to land safely. The core team includes 2 air ambulance pilots, a helicopter emergency medical service (HEMS) trained doctor and critical care paramedic. The service operates 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. It is tasked to attend incidents by the local NHS ambulance service and is funded by charitable donations.
The service operates throughout the whole year with the air ambulance being able to fly day and night. EAAA is the only HEMS service to operate its air ambulance service through the hours of darkness in the East Anglian region. Air ambulance staff are trained to use night-vision goggles to fly in the hours of darkness. Where staffing or weather conditions prevented flying, the Norfolk and Suffolk counties were covered by the Cambridge air ambulance team.
In 2025, EAAA completed a total of 2,738 missions , 1,573 were air ambulance; of which 903 were at night. Most patients were treated within the county of Norfolk and the service completed an average of 7 missions a day in 2025.
This Air Ambulance service provided the following regulated activities: diagnostic and screening procedures, surgical procedures, transport services, triage and medical advice provided remotely and treatment of disease, disorder or injury. The service had a service level agreement to provide critical and urgent care for the local NHS ambulance service.
We carried out a short notice comprehensive assessment on 10 March 2026 due to an aged rating and CQC assessment priorities. This is the first time the service has been inspected against the new CQC single assessment framework and methodology. At the last assessment we rated the service as outstanding across all key questions. Following this assessment the rating remained outstanding overall.
People's experience of this service
We spoke to 3 patients and family members who had used the service and reviewed patient survey results and stakeholder feedback given to the service. Feedback from people who use the service, those who are close to them and stakeholders was continually positive about the way staff treat people. Patients were positive about the staff treating them with warmth and kindness and providing effective care and support. Patients told us that the care and support offered by the Aftercare Team was well balanced and timely in helping them understand and manage the trauma they had been through. A patient reported they were reassured by staff and meeting the team enabled them to understand the care and treatment received when they could not recall this. Support was extended to patient’s families which allowed them to ask questions and feel included in coming to terms with the event. Both financial and emotional support was offered until the individual felt ready to be discharged by the Aftercare team, this meant that there was ample opportunity to ask questions that was individualised.