Dr Duncan Bootland has been appointed as Medical Director of Air Ambulance Kent Surrey Sussex (KSS). Dr Bootland, who joined KSS in 2013 with six years’ experience working in emergency medicine and intensive care, has been a Helicopter Emergency Medical Service (HEMS) Consultant and clinical governance lead at KSS. He has extensive experience and exceptional skills in pre-hospital emergency medical care in life threatening situations and is also an Emergency Medicine Consultant and the Major Trauma Centre Clinical Lead at Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust and an Honorary Clinical Advisor for South East Coast Ambulance Service.
At KSS, his new role of Medical Director involves maintaining and delivering high standards of clinical governance and delivery for KSS, while continuing to ensure that patients are at the heart of the service. Dr Bootland will work closely with Leigh Curtis, KSS’s Executive Director of Service Delivery and Professor Richard Lyon, KSS’s Associate Medical Director, to ensure that KSS is delivering an exemplary service. He will also play a key role in the development and ongoing implementation of KSS’s organisational strategy, The KSS Way.
Dr Bootland succeeds Dr Malcolm Russell who is stepping down from the role after seven years in post. Dr Russell, who has worked with the life-saving charity for 13 years in total, will remain an integral part of KSS, continuing to work with their highly skilled crews and clinical management team.
Dr Bootland said, “I am delighted to take up the Medical Director role at KSS, an organisation I have been immensely proud to be part of over the last seven and a half years. KSS has always been an organisation that delivers the highest quality of pre-hospital care and this is an amazing opportunity for me to build on the work of Dr Malcolm Russell.”
Operating out of Redhill Aerodrome and headquartered in Rochester, KSS provides world-leading pre-hospital emergency care whenever and wherever required to save lives and to enable the best possible patient outcomes. Covering Kent, Surrey and Sussex, KSS serves a population of 4.8 million plus those who travel through the area – one of the busiest in the UK. Its crews of pilots, doctors and paramedics fly over 2500 missions a year.
KSS, which in 2020 celebrates its 30th year, was the first (and is currently the only) 24/7 Helicopter Emergency Medical Service (HEMS) in the country.
