Crab -
We have a traction splint on the aircraft on on the off-chance we might need it. We have a KED on the aircraft on the off-chance we might need it. (I can remember using it once in two and a half years)We will have a winch on the aircraft for the same reason. Different finances, same concept.
Saving the paramedic a bit of a walk...The whole point of the initial phase of this trial is to get the paramedic and kit to the inaccessible patient in the shortest time possible. I'm sure you would have no trouble fighting your way up 200 metres of steep, wet, boggy, bracken covered hillside carrying a 30lb+ rucksack full of gear, but the average paramedic does. Discounting the time involved, they would probably be needing medical care themselves. How is that helping the patient?
As said, if it proves feasible, safe and a useful addition to our service we will look at lifting the patient to a more accessible location for loading.
Very public-spirited of you to question the use of "donated funds". But then again you don't know how the funding for this project was raised, now do you? Assumption can be a terrible thing, Crab.
Any funds donated from the public to run the operation (which I guess is where you are aiming with this) are freely given to spend as the Trustee board feel is appropriate. If the public don't like what the money is being spent on, they have a right not to donate.
Risk and expense justified? We'll have to wait and see. But even if it only helps to save one life a year wouldn't that be justification enough? (For the expense that is - I appreciate your earlier comments about balancing possible saving of life against possible loss of rescuer's life)
Oh and consider this - every hour we spend sat on lonely hillsides waiting for Fell / Mountain resue teams to arrive to help extricate a patient from a difficult location is an hour off-line where somebody else may need our help.
And no, that is not a dig at those agencies who, do a stirling job, it' s just a fact.
Last edited by Flaxton Flyer; 7th Feb 2008 at 10:33.