Medivacs…

A Medivac is how we refer to an urgent hospital to hospital transfer. Non-urgent taskings will be referred to as Med-transfers.

A Medivac will be treated with the same urgency as a HEMS flight and will also be flown using our Helimed call sign giving us priority once in UK airspace and will usually involve the helicopter landing at a hospital helipad. Patients will be accompanied by a Doctor / Anaesthetist as well as at least one in-flight nurse.

Patients are regularly transferred between hospitals in the islands and the UK using a chartered aeroplane operated by Capital Air Ambulance. They are contracted by the government of each island (separate contacts) and the service differs slightly between the islands. In Jersey, the plane is based on island and in Guernsey it is based at Exeter. Capital has provided this service for many years and have proven to be reliable and highly professional. There are times when a UK Coastguard helicopter is requested, and in 2018 this was over 30 times, and the average transfer time from call to destination by helicopter was over 6 hours.

A fixed-wing aircraft will always be the most cost-effective method of transferring a patient to the UK, and it is not the intention of Air Rescue to be the primary method for routine transfers.

Our vision is to be available as a backup for the fixed-wing aircraft and to investigate new clinical pathways where the speed and agility of a helicopter could open up new treatments and care for certain conditions where time is absolutely critical. The helicopter also has a higher patient weight limit than the fixed-wing aircraft.