Our new home

Updated on Monday, 25th September 

Our fundraising and support teams closed the doors to our HQ in Huntingdon town centre for the final time last week, and today began the process of moving over to our new home in Alconbury Weald.

Charity support staff are now settling in to the new community in Alconbury, and will be followed in the near future by our clinical, aviation and operations teams. Our clinical service is still fully operational from RAF Wyton in the meantime.

Watch this space for further updates!

Magpas Air Ambulance is one of the first emergency medical charities of its kind in the UK, initially set up by two GPs in 1971. The new airbase is an important milestone in our 50-year pursuit to improve emergency care for patients across the region.

For many years, Magpas Air Ambulance has been operating from two sites, with the operations base at RAF Wyton and headquarters in Huntingdon. However, when the charity was served notice on the building we currently operate from due to the sale of land at Wyton, Magpas Air Ambulance took the opportunity to create a purpose-built airbase, headquarters and training centre—combining both buildings under one roof.

We've since been working to build our new home for the past six years. The building, designed by MCW architects and constructed by Lindum, includes a dedicated state-of-the-art training centre to train the next generation of pre-hospital emergency doctors and paramedics; is equipped for 24/7 operations with well-being and rest facilities for crew and clinicians; and has new community and patient facilities on site—including a new dedicated space for patients and their families to visit the charity and meet with the clinicians that treated them, away from the bustle of day-to-day operations.

By designing and building the premises from scratch, the charity finally has a base that can fully support Magpas Air Ambulance's 24/7 operations. We have ensured the building works for every element of the charity, and places staff wellbeing at the forefront—with clinician rest spaces and dorms, as well as garden spaces and state-of-the-art facilities.

To ensure it maximises renewable energy, the building has been designed with the approach of ‘be lean, be clean and be green’. This is achieved through integrated design measures such as solar shading and natural ventilation through louvres, and PV panels on the roof.

The location of the new airbase is situated closer to the region’s major trunk roads, which will reduce vehicle dispatch times by up to 15 minutes, and the co-location of the charity’s operations and support staff—who currently work across two sites—will be more efficient: reducing charity overheads and improving environmental impact.

Although the new Magpas Air Ambulance visitor centre will be open to the public very soon, we’re not able to facilitate public tours or visitors quite yet. We need our staff members to settle into the new building and ensure the visitor experience is the best it can be before welcoming guests.

If you would like to visit the new base when it’s open to the public, please register your interest by emailing our fundraising team.