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Wed Feb 25 20:33:29 GMT 2009

I am in a regional trauma service in Victoria Australia, 235km from
Melbourne. Off the top of my head we do 80 - 90% of our tertiary center
transport by fixed wing, 5 - 10% road, and 5 - 10 % rotary.

It's a very effective means of moving people and costs way less than rotary
wing transfers. Air Ambulance here also use King Airs I believe.

Cheers

Greg

-----Original Message-----
From: trauma-list-bounces at trauma.org [mailto:trauma-list-bounces at trauma.org]
On Behalf Of Stephen Richey
Sent: Thursday, February 26, 2009 4:13 AM
To: Trauma &amp, Critical Care mailing list
Subject: Re: NTSB to Issue Helicopter EMS Safety Recommendations

I would look at the success (and safety record) of the Royal Flying Doctor
Service in Australia.  They actually  have been known to land their
fixed-wing aircraft (King Airs if memory suffices) on roads to access
patients.

My main point with there being a greater utility in the use of fixed wing
aircraft in rural areas (and I mean REALLY rural....Wyoming, New Mexico,
northern Maine, western Kansas, North Dakota, Alaska, etc....not "Look!
There's corn!" rural) is that they are faster over exceedingly long
distances (once you get past a couple hundred miles as is the case when your
closest trauma center may be Albuquerque, Denver, Salt Lake City, Portland
or Anchorage.  In this way, they actually save time.  The secondary point to
all of this is the reduction in the number of people unnecessarily flown
from scenes.  It is this sort of cowboy tactic that gets crews and patients
killed.

Interhospital transfer by fixed wing aircraft- if it is taken seriously and
implemented properly (which is currently is not in many places because of
the reliance on helicopters)- can be an extremely effective means of moving
the minority of patients who really need aeromedical evacuation as quick as
possible.   Also patient care in the back of a helicopter is not easy and
the added "comfort" of a more stable and roomy cabin offered by a fixed wing
aircraft allows for advanced procedures to be carried out quicker and
easier.

On Wed, Feb 25, 2009 at 12:01 PM, p.bjorn at netzero.net
<p.bjorn at netzero.net>wrote:

>
>
> Begs the question: how useful ARE fixed wing services in EMS?  Even in my
> experience (rural Maine), the circumstances which at once suggest and
> tolerate airplane transfer during the primary treatment phase are
> exceedingly rare.  You're adding at least two vehicles and maybe three
teams
> to the transfer process.  That consumes time and shatters continuity.
>
> Pret
>
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-- 
Stephen L. Richey, CRT
--
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NTSB to Issue Helicopter EMS Safety Recommendations