Thames Valley Air Ambulance (TVAA) will train its crews from a new hub in Stokenchurch.

The service is set to move to a new premises in the south Bucks village where its crews will be able to train from a simulation suite, allowing them to operate in different environments using specialist techniques and pre-hospital medical equipment.

It comes as the charity takes responsibility for its clinical governance and takes steps to become Care Quality Commission registered.

CEO Amanda McLean said: “We are establishing a robust clinical governance process and will later become Care Quality Commission (CQC) registered.

“Clinical governance encompasses all aspects of our work that essentially affects the patients we treat. This includes clinical practice, training, education, research and innovation.

“This move will allow us to enhance the service we offer to better meet the needs of the people who live, work and travel in Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire.

“It will include expanding our fleet of Emergency Response Vehicles (ERV), reviewing our hours of operation and eventually looking at the model of aircraft that we use.”

She added: “With this expansion comes greater responsibility and we must also provide the physical space that everyone working in the charity needs to make our ambition and dreams a reality.

“Our new office premises will give us the space to train and educate our crews, allowing for a fully immersive simulation suite where they will be able to learn and practice in variety of replicated environments.

“The new facility will provide a more appropriate space for the crucial support functions that enables us to operate our frontline service.”

The environments in the new simulation suite will include busy nightclubs and shopping centres, as well as parkland such as the Chiltern Hills.

Crews will also be able to simulate situations such as road traffic accidents and equestrian incidents.

TVAA’s medical director Dr Syed Masud said: “Thanks to the generous support TVAA receives from the public, we are now in a position to make this move.

“We are delighted to have reached this point and we are confident that we will continue to enhance our critical service to meet the need of the patients and public that we serve”.