Not the role of this job at all; rather, they are a pure air ambulance show transferring people from one hospital to another. Absolutely NO 'life saving' involved.
Not really. Hospital to Hospital starts to encroach on RFDS territory. The state pays for the RFDS but the hospital pays for the CAC operation if required. This has been done once and will probably not occur again due to the size of the bill the hospital received.
Most of the work is from the accident site (mine site etc) direct to Perth. The aircraft carries both a Doctor and Paramedic who can deal as effectively "first responders" but really backing up what medical facilities may be available, or unavailable at the site - whether its the medical centre on Barrow Island or a one man medical unit on a mine site. The contract was established to operate as a "critical patient" transport by the mining companies bypassing the RFDS in the process. The only company not to come on board was Rio Tinto.
Further, even the agency whose primary task IS 'life saving' flights (RFDS) would not approach the role with the bravado you are suggesting -
Quote:
in the middle of the night in thunderstorms
- the risk matrix would be well and truly applied before anything like that occurred. As Wally said, no sane organisation would willingly put lives at risk to complete an aeromedical task.
Agree totally. No aeromedical operation is a place for bravado even more so this one as this is at the limits of what the C550 can do. Flying Karratha - Barrow Is - Perth is getting on the limits of what the machine can do but throw in holding and alternates and the job is impossible. Many a job has been pulled due to weather up there, and unfortunately people have died because of this.