Jellycopter
“Rule 5.
If said helipad fails to meet new requirements it still should not affect life-saving flights. Rule 5 will be the 'critical' rule here and crews are absolved from adherance of Rule 5 for the purposes of saving life.”
Unfortunately, we do not just have to comply with the ANO. Each hospital landing site that we wish to utilise, whether for HEMS or Air Ambulance is listed in a company landing site guide. We are then granted an exemption from various aspects of rule 5 when operating to that site. If a HEMS pilot wishes to utilise the “for the purposes of saving life” clause in rule 5, then I believe he should do it in the knowledge that he might require the services of flying lawyer!
Robbo Jock
“Does the Childrens Hospital actually need this helipad? There's talk about the 'golden hour' after an accident; how does this differ from children to adults ? If there are other casualty units "around the city" (presumably therefore only within a few minutes flying time of each other) each of which can stabilise accident victims (adult or child) within the golden hour, does having this additional one actually help?”
Yes, frankly the treatment of paediatric trauma is hugely different from that of adults, hence the trauma unit at Selly Oak in Birmingham does not take patients under 16 years of age. The majority of children taken to this unit by air, have been involved in pedestrian RTA’s and have either multiple injuries or isolated head injuries.
The Golden Hour actually refers to the time from initial trauma to reaching ‘definitive care.’ What defines ‘definitive care’ depends on the injury; in one case it might be an orthopaedic surgeon at a general hospital, in an other, it might require the intervention of a neurosurgeon. In my opinion, the term ‘golden hour’ is overused, if a patient is going to die without appropriate treatment in 23 minutes then it surely becomes a ‘golden 23 minutes.’
(Please note: the opinions expressed are those of the author, not necessarily those of his employers or the NHS!)