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Old 23rd Nov 2010, 13:16
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Ah yes those outdated snapshots where we still see, on a regular basis, casualties spending far longer on the ground than they need to whilst the valuable AA asset is shut down beside them.

As I recall the establishment of AA was predicated on the Golden Hour concept of ops which, if you have an appropriately qualified and experienced doctor on board, may mean just getting the AA to the casualty - but, certainly in this part of the world, there are paramedics, not doctors in the AA and so the cas needs to get to hospital quickly.

It seems to be a case of mission creep where both land and air ambulances pitch up to the same job or is it just to meet NHS response time targets - get the paramedic on scene and the clock stops, regardless of how long it subsequently takes to get the patient to hospital?

I suspect that most AA callouts are not golden hour trauma cases requiring surgical or anaesthetic skills but I am sure the casualties would far prefer to be treated in hospital instead of in a field.
crab@SAAvn.co.uk is offline