When the "slow, old S61s" are doing other jobs there is no cover at all athe moment. I think an aircraft ditching will take precedence over a patient transfer - you show your ignorance of SAR planning and operations if you think any differently.
You're really missing the point on this one. Jigsaw is about setting a new safety standard offshore. It is about removing the platforms own standby boat and replacing it with a regional support vessel and helicopter back up. If the back up is not there because it's shuttling passengers or half way to Aberdeen on air ambulance work then it is not meeting the concept it was sold on to the offshore workers. Of course any aircraft can be retasked but you can hardly take a pregnant women or a baby in an incubator out to a ditched aircraft. You have to take them to some sort of place of safety first which all takes time – something offshore workers in a ditched aircraft may not have.
The SAR captain has to prioritise tasks and that is his/her job.
Errr... no it isn't. It is the job of the CCC (Command and Control Centre). It is the CCC that will have the all the information available to them to prioritise tasking not a SAR driver who should be concentrating on the job in hand. Are you seriously suggesting that a SAR driver on task is going to collect and review information of another incident and then decide which one to do? Have you considered the possibility that he may have more important and more pressing issues to think about without taking on the combined role of the Coastguard and RCC as well?