The lifesaving services of Wiltshire Air Ambulance have never been needed more. 

So far this year, the charitable organisation that responds to emergencies has been called out to 329 missions across its helicopter and car teams. 

This has easily eclipsed the previous busiest start of the year in 2019 where 299 callouts were made. 

In March alone, the Bell 429 helicopter and two critical care cars were called out to 114 missions, equating an average of three a day. 

A spokesperson for Wiltshire Air Ambulance said: "In terms of mission types, our crew were called to 27 were medical conditions, 26 road traffic collisions, and 17 cardiac emergencies. We also attended 18 incidents involving children.

"The crew are often called upon to perform surgical procedures, deliver blood transfusions and administer pre-hospital emergency anaesthesia at the scene of an incident. 

"During March, our aircrew carried out two procedural sedations, three patients needed pre-hospital emergency anaesthesia, which is a vital yet high-risk intervention. It is used to gain rapid control of a patient’s physiology following serious traumatic or medical incidents.  

"There were six patients who required blood transfusions on scene before being transferred to hospital. We carry two units of O Negative red blood cells, two units of O Positive red blood cells and four units of plasma on board our helicopter and critical care cars. 

"Our aircrew supported five patients with advanced airway management, and on two occasions the team used the LUCAS machine to deliver CPR."

Of these events, 37 took place at night, with the helicopter pilots needing to use specialised night vision goggles. 

The county's air ambulance is not funded as part of the NHS and does not receive funding from the government or National Lottery grants. 

Instead relies on donations and fundraising efforts from members of the public to keep functioning. 

It has said that it needs to raise more than £12,000 a day to fund its "essential" service because costs have increased by 11 per cent to a total of £4.5m a year.

David Philpott, the charity's CEO, said: "There are no shortcuts when it comes to providing frontline, pre-hospital clinical care."

He added: "Everything that we do costs money because it has to be done properly and safely and in line with the Care Quality Commission and NHS standards."