Hampshire and Isle of Wight Air Ambulance (HIOWAA) is amongst the first Air Ambulance services to collaborate with the Royal Air Force to carry critically ill patients from more remote areas – such as the Isle of Wight – to major trauma centres with increased intensive care capacity.
Last week, the charity undertook the first time-critical transfer of a patient from Jersey to University Hospital Southampton in an RAF Chinook. Normally, transfers from the Channel Islands to the UK mainland would be undertaken by Coastguard helicopter.
During a joint training exercise at HIOWAA’s Airbase in Thruxton last week, the charity’s Critical Care Teams worked alongside military personnel to prepare themselves for an initiative that will play an important role in helping to bring increased support to patients during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The teams simulated loading critically ill, ventilated patients onto RAF Chinook, Puma and Royal Navy Merlin helicopters and then providing constant support and care to them inside the military aircraft.
Hampshire and Isle of Wight Air Ambulance’s CEO, Alex Lochrane, has said:
“It is absolutely our duty to do everything that we can to ensure that patients on the Isle of Wight, and other more remote areas, get the necessary critical care during the current pandemic.
“This is a hugely impressive and vitally important collaboration with the RAF and I am immensely proud of our Critical Care clinicians and the Care Group Management team within University Hospital Southampton who have responded with flexibility and total selflessness to the rapidly evolving health crisis, displaying their usual professionalism, dedication and teamwork.”
3 RAF Chinook helicopters, which can carry up to 2 ventilated patients each, are currently on standby at RAF Odiham in Hampshire to fly patients to major trauma centres such as Southampton, as well as the NHS Nightingale Hospital in London.
Dr Simon Hughes, a senior Pre-Hospital Emergency Medicine Consultant with Hampshire and Isle of Wight Air Ambulance for over 10 years, says:
“A Chinook helicopter not only has the advantage of range and speed, but it also offers more space than the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Air Ambulance, allowing us to continue care for patients who could potentially be Covid-19 positive, whilst maintaining a safe distance from the military aircrew.”
