Jet ambulance to boost medical evacuation services in W.A. (Perth)
A new jet ambulance service launched in Perth today is now on call to provide medical evacuations to critically injured patients involved in disaster situations, such as the 2002 Bali bombings and the aftermath of the 2007 Cyclone George.
WA Health Minister, Jim McGinty, officially launched the CareFlight Air Ambulance – a new aero-medical service which will provide long-range medical retrievals missions from as far as South-East Asia.
Mr McGinty also announced the signing of an agreement between WA Health and CareFlight, which will allow the State Government to call on the new air ambulance service in the event of a disaster.
”The CareFlight Air Ambulance will complement the State’s existing aero-medical services, such as the Royal Flying Doctor Service, and boost the State’s capacity to deal with disaster situations,” Mr McGinty said.
“One of the advantages of a jet air ambulance is obviously speed. It is twice as fast as a propeller-driven aircraft and can travel twice the distance without having to stop to refuel.
“Having this jet air ambulance service means that for the first time Western Australia will have access to a rapid response medical team that could retrieve seriously ill patients from as far as South-East Asia.”
CareFlight jet and medical teams will be available, should a specific need arise, to support WA Government agencies, the Royal Flying Doctor Service, mines, assistance service and other companies to quickly retrieve patients from remote locations.
The dedicated CareFlight jet, a Westwind II, is provided through a partnership with Pel-Air Aviation and the doctor/nurse medical teams from a partnership with the Ramsay Joondalup Health Campus and from CareFlight Australia.
CareFlight’s NSW chairman, Dr Andrew Refshauge, said using the resources of Joondalup Health Campus, CareFlight Air Ambulance flights would always be staffed with one highly-trained critical care doctor, from anaesthesia or emergency medicine and an intensive care nurse with aviation training.
The inauguration of the new WA-based service will allow aeromedical charity, CareFlight Australia, to operate Australia’s first national network of jet air ambulances – from its bases in Perth (WA), Darwin (NT), Gold Coast (Qld) and Sydney (NSW).
Dr Refshauge said the focus is on high-acuity clinical medical care that is speciality-driven, as CareFlight extends an Australian teaching hospital standard of critical care medicine to the most remote areas and maintains this level of care throughout the sometimes difficult journey home.
“The achievement of a national jet air ambulance network meant a single phone call could activate up to five jets to converge on the scene of a major disaster,” he said.
“Governments can now immediately call on the CareFlight Air Ambulance jets and their specially-trained medical teams.”
Dr Refshauge said the new agreement, announced by the Health Minister, would allow this quick response and would help plan for the management of any future disasters in Australia and adjacent regions.
“CareFlight medical teams have been involved in the past provision of medical and disaster support to the Bali bombings, the 2004 South-East Asian tsunami and the 2006 Jogyakarta earthquake,” Dr Refshauge said.
CareFlight provides critical care retrieval and aero-medical services to support the Health System in Queensland and New South Wales where, since 1981, its medical teams have conducted more than 35,000 patient transport missions.
In February this year the gravely wounded President of East Timor, Dr Jose Ramos-Horta, was flown under intensive care treatment from Dili by a CareFlight Air Ambulance retrieval team to undergo treatment at Royal Darwin Hospital.
Only six days ago the new Perth-based service was called into action.
The CareFlight Air Ambulance flew from Perth to Bali at the request of an assistance company to allow the critical care team to retrieve a 53-year-old Perth man who suffered multiple injuries in a motor cycle crash on the tourist island and needed to urgently undergo specialist surgery at Royal Perth Hospital.
ENDS: For further information please call NRMA CareFlight spokesman Ian Badham on 0418 245 748.
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