Life Saving Service

Deployment of the Great North Air Ambulance Service

Requests for the Great North Air Ambulance Service to attend an incident are received from 5 primary sources:

The Ambulance Service Command and Control Centre.
Land-based Ambulance Crew requests.
Rural G.P. request.
Hospital requests.
Other Emergency Service's e.g. Police, Fire, Mountain Rescue and Coastguard.

Criteria for Dispatching Air Ambulance

The use of helicopters to transport patients is becoming the standard of care for many critically ill and injured persons requiring transportation to a specialist centre.

These guidelines emphasise the fundamental importance of closely integrating resources so that ground crews and air services work together in the best interest of patient care.

Guidelines

Severely injured patients - need to be transported as soon as possible to a regional trauma centre.

1. Patients with critical injuries, showing signs of instability, require the fastest, most direct route of transport to hospital. Often this is the case in the following situations: Patient inside helicopter

Penetrating trauma to the abdomen, pelvis, chest, neck or head.
Major burns of the body surface area, face, hands, feet or perineum, or burns with significant respiratory involvement or major electrical or chemical burns.
Patients involved in a serious traumatic event who are less than 12 years of age or more than 55 years of age.
Patients with near-drowning injuries, with or without existing hypothermia.

2. Sudden illness, unconscious/collapse.

3. Injured or ill - in inaccessible places.

Stable patients who are accessible by Road Crews are probably best transported by Road Crews.

Missions

The Air Ambulance will operate three types of Helicopter Emergency Medical Service (HEMS) Missions.

Primary Missions
The Air Ambulance will respond to all life threatening calls as a primary response.

Secondary Missions
The Air Ambulance will respond to all requests for assistance from land based ambulance crews or other agencies as a secondary response.

Tertiary Missions
The Air Ambulance will respond to Hospital transfers.

Operational Limitations of the Air Ambulance

The weather limitations for the aircraft are quite generous, however there are certain conditions that can prevent us from flying:

1. Poor visibility. Especially at night as wires/trees and other obstacles are impossible to see.

2. Strong winds gusting over 30 knots. Wind speed over 30 knots is flyable but extremely uncomfortable for the patient and can worsen their condition. It is also extremely dangerous when starting/shutting down the engines, which also makes working around the aircraft hazardous as the rotor blades can bend considerably and could easily come into contact with the crew.

trauma team in snow

3. Rain and snow showers are flyable. However, snowstorms can considerably reduce visibility (whiteout effect). The final decision whether or not to fly is the responsibility of the pilot, he alone is responsible for flight safety decisions. The weather at the incident scene may be fine, however that may not be the case at the helicopter base or en-route.

Safety

The helicopter is not inherently dangerous. The danger manifests itself in the form of people not understanding the potential hazards that exist on or near the helicopter.

The helicopter has two sets of rotor blades, the main rotor above the body of the aircraft and the tail rotor at the rear of the aircraft. The greatest threat whilst operating around the helicopter is the turning blade. When these blades are turning the tail rotor is virtually invisible. Physical contact with either of these could result in fatal injuries. Members of the public should never approach the helicopter.

Supported by the people and operated on their behalf, each helicopter will fly 3-5 missions per day. The Charity receives no funding from the government no do we qualify for lottery funding. Of course this means that we can never be subject to government cutbacks. So long as the people of our region want the service and support it, it will always be there for them.

There are many ways to help the Charity and maintain this important regional service.

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