Northern Ireland air ambulance service launches - Printable Version +- TT Website Forum (https://www.ttwebsite.com/forums) +-- Forum: Isle of Man TT Website (https://www.ttwebsite.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?fid=3) +--- Forum: General Discussion (https://www.ttwebsite.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?fid=137) +--- Thread: Northern Ireland air ambulance service launches (/showthread.php?tid=25190)

Northern Ireland air ambulance service launches - Malcolm - 02-08-2017 A new helicopter ambulance for Northern Ireland is fully operational from Wednesday. It will cost £2m a year to run and will be dependent on public donations. There is a landing base at the Maze Long Kesh site in County Antrim and a back-up at St Angelo outside Enniskillen. The service will operate with a doctor and paramedic on board. Northern Ireland was previously the only area in the UK without such a service. The helicopter will be able to reach any part of Northern Ireland within 25 minutes. "I can't tell you the amount of time it will save in terms of getting a doctor to treat a casualty on site," said Air Ambulance Northern Ireland's Patrick Minne. "Our first case casualty was taken to Belfast in an eight-minute flight that would probably have taken between 50 and 60 minutes by road." In that incident last month, Conor McMullan, 11, was involved in a tractor accident in Castlewellan. The air ambulance was scrambled from training to take him to hospital. The creation of the Helicopter Emergency Medical Service (HEMS) follows a 12-year campaign; the announcement earlier this year that the service would be doctor-led followed an intervention by emergency medics. Last year, a group of doctors from around the world wrote to then health minister Michelle O'Neill to voice concerns the helicopter service would not have a doctor on board when it was launched. They were concerned that it could initially be staffed only by paramedics.