By Noimot Olayiwola/Staff Reporter

 

The Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC) will be able to provide round-the-clock air ambulance services when three new helicopters will join the corporation’s LifeFlight fleet by the end of this year, a senior official has said.

HMC Ambulance Service Aeromedical manager Wayne Thomson said the air ambulance now ran emergency services daily between 6am-12 midnight.

The new helicopters, being planned in collaboration with the Qatar Emiri Air Force, will be bigger enough to accommodate two patients.

Speaking at the flight’s anniversary celebrations of the service last year, the HMC Ambulance Service chief executive officer Robert Owen had mentioned plans to partner with the Qatar Emiri Air Force and the introduction of new helicopters.

The LifeFlight air ambulance service, which was launched in 2007, has grown from being a daylight-hour service to an 18-hour service, enabling the crew to respond to emergencies from 6am until midnight.

The LifeFlight helicopter is fitted out with advanced life support medical equipment and is in constant contact with the National Command Centre.

The existing helicopter carries three crew members - the pilot, a critical care paramedic and an ambulance paramedic - and can transport and care for one patient in a serious condition.

The air ambulance service currently receives and responds to an average of 110 calls each month with most cases being trauma emergencies: road traffic accidents, all terrain vehicle (ATVs) accidents mostly in deserts as well as industrial accidents.

Besides trauma emergencies, LifeFlight is  dispatched for medical cases such as patients who suffer  a heart attack or those who become unconscious or very ill.

There has been an increased need for the service at the Sealine area during the camping season.

The decision on whether a patient needs to be transported by LifeFlight is based on various factors that include, among other things, the condition of the patient and distance to the hospital.

Thomson said that it would take the LifeFlight to reach a patient in Shamal area in about 20 minutes from taking off from Doha and 25 minutes to reach Abu Samra.

“Once notified of a case by the National Command Centre, LifeFlight is airborne within four-and-a-half minutes. We generally fly in a straight line and flight time depends on the distance from Hamad General Hospital which is the helicopter base,” Thomson explained.

“During the day, we can land almost anywhere, provided it is safe to do so. At night, we currently only land at 16 designated helicopter operating sites located at strategic positions around the country.”