In a major development in the emergency air evacuation service in the country, Defence Public Sector Unit Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), which has recently launched the helicopter services for critical healthcare access, is now working with city hospitals to set up temporary helipads. HAL will charge Rs 25,000 per hour for all medical evacuation.

Chetak helicopters will be used to airlift patients in the city and outskirts where medical services are not available.

HAL Chief Test Pilot Wg. Cdr. (Retd.) CD Upadhyay said that there are very few hospitals in the country that have helipads of their own. Narayana Hrudayalaya, Sparsh Hospital and Sanjeevani Comprehensive Trauma Care (CTC) Service some of which have helipads.

As a pre-cursor to the helicopter introduction in medical evacuation, within the next one month, HAL will inspect all the hospitals that have open spaces to accommodate a helicopter and look for alternatives if there are none. The defence PSU will take on the help of hospitals for this task. Another effort is to create awareness amongst people and the police force about the rules.

The hospitals will have to provide the space, as well as provide the personnel to airlift the patients. Upadhyay said that doctors will have to certify that the patient is fit for travel by air and paramedical staff should accompany the patient.

Plans are underway to launch another Chetak, in a month. The defence PSU's Advanced Light Helicopter (ALH) Dhruv would also be pressed into service as part of the Helicopter Emergency Service (HEMS) to attend to mass casualties, he said.

With air evacuation in medical services being most appropriate for cardiac emergencies, Dr. Manjunath, director, Jayadeva Institute of Cardiology (JIC) said that hospitals have begun to realize the importance of helipads and since HAL has undertaken this task, preparing helipads is easy.

In fact, the helicopter service is extremely crucial for mass casualty and heart patients who are stranded in remote areas. These patients can be attended to immediately and many lives can be saved.

According to Dr Sharan Shivraj Patil, medcial director, Sparsh Hospital, patients have to be stable before they are airlifted and it would require a coordinated medical team which will save a lot of time.

Pharmabiz had reported about the constitution of a the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) by the government of India in its 10th Five Year pre disaster preparation report. The Union government is now working on a policy to recommend the use of helicopter borne emergency medical services (EMS) and air ambulances. NDMA is in the process of forming a National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) to be deployed in the country. Under the project, eight battalions of the force would be formed. The training of helicopter-borne patient evacuation would be imparted in association with the Indian Air Force and para-military forces.