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| Today,
EMS helicopter programmes are well established throughout the United
States and many Countries in Western Europe. The U.S has some 200
operations whose services are paid for primarily by the patients and
their insurance companies. As well as Switzerland, France, Austria,
Italy, Scandinavia and the former West Germany all have very successful
versions of the helicopter based EMS, the benefits of which have in
some instances been particularly well documented. In Germany, for
example, there is now a network of helicopters which ahs evolved over
a period of time to cover the entire Country. Statistics which have
been gathered over this period of time show:- 1. An average response
time to the scene of the incident of just 10 minutes. 2. Intensive
care stays in hospital have been shortened by between five and seven
days. 3. There are 9% fewer wound infections. 4. There has been a
significant reduction in the number of deaths which have occurred
during transport to hospital. 5. Head injury mortality has been reduced
by 15%. 6. They have achieved a 3% success rate in cases of cardiac
arrest. These are impressive figures, indeed, so why then has Britain,
one of the major helicopter users in the world, lagged so far behind
in this field? It has been suggested that a lack of will at national
government level, coupled with decidedly differing local interests
has resulted in the idea never receiving formal backing from the health
authorities generally. Moreover, cost, obviously has been a major
deciding factor, with a fixed NHS budget leaving little room for the
introduction of major and relatively expensive innovations such as
air ambulances. |
Only
in the past few years has this Country, faced with a developing and
ever more complex system of motorways, leading to increasingly horrific
accidents, come to address itself seriously to the prospect of using
flying ambulances where access to conventional emergency vehicles
would prove extremely difficult. A major step forward came in 1988
when a report made by the Royal College of Surgeons recommended the
setting up of a network of trauma centres, geared specifically to
dealing with the types of injury sustained in major accidents and
to which patients would be flown direct by a national fleet of EMS
helicopters. |
If this plan were to be implemented it would herald the dawn of a
new era in the treatment of trauma victims in the Country. In the
meantime, several counties have taken the initiative into their own
hands, Cornwall leading the way with the First Air Ambulance Service
in 1987. We have been followed by Kent, Scotland, the West Midlands,
London, Devon, Lincolnshire & Nottinghamshire, the North East, Essex,
Thames Valley, Yorkshire, the North West, Dorset & Somerset and Wales
most of whom are funded as we are, by charitable donations given by
members of the public. Various others have watched these development
with interest and it seems possible that they will follow our lead
in due course.
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