Action Aviation was contracted to supply this turnkey Air Ambulance service to Qatar. Action Aviation owns the helicopter and supplies the pilots and maintenance services.

Qatar - Following a six-month trial period, the National Health Authority announced yesterday that it would continue the new helicopter emergency medical service known as ‘LifeFlight,’ and expanding it to night-time hours in the near future. At a press conference yesterday, National Health Authority   CEO Michael Walsh; executive director of emergency services at Hamad Medical Corporation, Penny Price and chief pilot Captain Mohamed Obaid from Gulf Helicopters described how the programme had been introduced in Qatar, as well as the future developments they intend to make.

Walsh explained that over the six-month trial, the helicopter was launched 427 times, and retrieved 184 patients.  The programme, run in co-operation with Gulf Helicopters and the staff of the emergency services department at HMC, covered areas outside of Doha, with the most missions flying to Mesaieed town, Shahhaniya and Al Khor, respectively.

He described the McDonald Douglas 902 ‘Explorer’ helicopter as “flexible and reliable,” and said that this particular craft, which is used widely around the world, was chosen because of its ability to negotiate tight spaces, and its safety.

The current service only covers daylight hours, and can be restricted by weather conditions, but future plans include the purchase of two helicopters with night vision technology which will arrive in the coming months. This will permit 24-hour coverage, and even allow both helicopters to attend a scene with more than one critically ill patient.  Walsh mentioned the positive aspects of the initiative, which included the co-operation with the Ministry of Interior and Ministry of Defence, as well as the performance of the helicopter and the staff who helped operate it.

He also described the biggest problem with the programme, which was the difficulty of locating accidents. Trauma or accidents accounted for 70% of the callouts which occurred over the six-month period, with males aged between 21 and 40 accounting for the largest proportion of patients. Price described that the choice of whether to send the helicopter to the site of an accident was made by asking a number of questions to ascertain the mechanism of injury and the potential need for surgery.  The time taken from receiving a call to sendng the helicopter is 3-4 minutes, and the helicopter reduces the time taken from the moment a call is received until transportation to the hospital by up to two-thirds. Captain Obaid pointed out the Ministry of Defence and Gulf Helicopters had other larger helicopters which can provide backup, but that the NHA aircraft was much easier to land and more suitable for conditions in Qatar.

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