This thread starts with a discussion about CAA regulations threatening the future of a hospital helipad but goes on to discuss wider HEMS and SAR issues.
Heliport
Birmingham Evening Mail report
BIRMINGHAM Children's Hospital will lose its helicopter landing pad unless it can find pounds 1.2 million by the end of the year.
Critically-injured children might have to be flown to other hospitals around the city for initial treatment before being transferred by land ambulance to the city centre hospital to receive the specialist paediatric treatment they need.
Hospital managers and air ambulance operators have called for action to save the helipad.
Up to 40 patients a year, many with lifethreatening injuries, are flown to the hospital from all over the country.
The current helipad will be decommissioned in December because of new regulations introduced by the Civil Aviation Authority.
The CAA rules state that helicopters using hospital landing sites must have three clear routes in and out of the area.
But its current location surrounded by the hospital, Central Hall, and Aston University halls of residence, means it does not meet the guidelines.
The only alternative would be to build a landing site on top of the new £13 million burns unit which has just been given the goahead by city planners.
The hospital's A&E manager, Mandy Sankey, said any delay to a child receiving life- saving specialist treatment during the 'golden hour' - the first 60 minutes after an accident - could reduce the chances of survival. 'We have to find the money,' she added.