AIR ambulance staff have poured scorn on bosses' plans to buy a new £2.5 million helicopter that can only fly in daylight.

The Great Western Ambulance Service has confirmed it is considering splitting the Wiltshire Air Ambulance from the county's police helicopter - three weeks after the Gazette revealed the news.

It said a decision will not be made for 12 to 18 months.

If it does split from Wiltshire Police, the trust would have to find £2.5 million for the new chopper - and annual running costs of £1 million.

But it would not be able to fly at night because of because of Civil Aviation Authority rules. Trust bosses have said they would ask staff to switch back to the police helicopter after dark.

But air ambulance staff say this would not be straightforward. One worker said: "A police helicopter wouldn't have the medical equipment on board like we have on the air ambulance.

"The patient would be on a stretcher that would be loose in the back of the aircraft and wouldn't be equipped to strap the stretcher down.'' A colleague added: "Why should the people of Wiltshire pay through the nose for a service that will cost £1 million a year for day light hours only, compared to £320,000 for an air ambulance/police helicopter that works day and night?"

Mike Evans, executive officer at Wiltshire Police's Air Support Unit, said a missing person was recently found by the aircraft suffering from exposure in a ditch."Having found him in a police role the aircraft took the casualty to hospital in its air ambulance role.

"In future we could have two helicopters dealing with the same incident," he said.

Wiltshire Police, who have not been consulted by trust, have declined to comment.

Money will remain in county'

The trust said the funds raised for the Wiltshire Air Ambulance Appeal, which is around £1.2 million, will be used in Wiltshire but in addition a new air ambulance charity would be set up.

The statement said: "The Wiltshire Air Ambulance appeal committee recently concluded that it would find it difficult to sustain the current level of fundraising.

"It has therefore agreed to link the Wiltshire Air Ambulance Appeal to the new Great Western Air Ambulance Charity.

"We would like to reassure people in Wiltshire that funds raised in their county will be held in a restricted account to ensure that they are used for the Wiltshire Air Ambulance.

He said the new charity had much fund raising experience and would bring extra money to the county.

However, Richard Riseley-Prichard of Wiltshire Air Ambulance Appeal could not remember the committee saying it would be difficult to sustain fund raising.

Dr Riseley-Prichard, one of the co-founders of the Wiltshire Air Ambulance Appeal committee in 1990, said: "I know absolutely nothing about that. We did recommend originally to the new ambulance trust that it would be better if the Wiltshire Air Ambulance was a standalone organisation rather than part of the ambulance service.

"As far as we know there is no reason to believe that donations will fall off provided we can give the public reassurance that anything they donate will be spent on the helicopter service in Wiltshire."

Dr Riseley-Prichard, a retired RAF doctor, of Allington near Devizes, said the present rate of income from donations is around £500,000 a year and the appeal has about £1 million in its reserves.

He said it would be more cost effective for the service to continue with the joint police helicopter/air ambulance.