Date: 02 Dec 2003
Time: 08:22
Sloane Helicopters (Northampton, UK) has extended its patient retrieval service and now offers both helicoper and fixed wing transfers 24 hours per day.
Using the new Piaggio P180 Avanti and the Agusta A109 Power, it has extended its flexibility. The Piaggio can carry one or two patients plus between two and four medical staff and can fly at speeds of up to 35 knots. Equipped with life saving equipment and a ‘lifeport’ patient loading system, its pressurized cabin (says Sloane) ‘make it ideal for barotrauma flights’.
The Agusta A109 can carry two patients and up to four medical staff and currently undertakes many transfers all over the UK.
A combination of these two aircraft (e.g flying a patient into a UK airport and then effecting a forward transfer by helicopter to a hospital) is one of the options that Sloane is considering.