Locally, the ambulance service(Greater Manchester) use those big white modified commercial vehicles with loads of kit and lights and sirens and two crew and loads of risk assessments and other stuff.
They also have Volvo estates (NOT the biggest one) one man and a bit of kit,bells whistles and jam-butty stripes.
Then they have MOTORCYCLES........so how the fxxk does that work?..... some sort of Tardis-feature in the panniers that it can carry all the kit that an ambulance carries?
Of course not! depending on circumstances, the car or M/Cyc. can arrive long before the "meat-wagon" , Assess and perhaps stabilise the patient and thereby "stretch" the "Golden hour" thereby SAVING LIVES.
Also, a revelation to many, a fair proportion of the ambulances and crews are run by part-time volunteers (St. John Ambulance ) No longer do they buy castoffs ,but new kit, fully trained personnel and these people are the equal of the full-timers directly employed regulars and are treated equally.
the same considerations "could" apply to the "volunteer heli service"
I don't think anyone's suggesting they'll ever take the place of a multi-million pound fully equipped dedicated machine, but as with the motorcycle , many a housefire has been put out with a saucepan or garden hose.
Anyone remember the cops poncing about at a 3 foot deep lake whilst a kiddy drowned?..... same mindset appears here on this thread, certain posters appear to be so brainwashed by institutionalised ar5e covering, they've forgotten to think constructively.
Sone of the wilder flights of fancy are obvious non-starters...as for remote surveillance, there are many R/C helo cameraship operators in the USA.....in the case of a RTA, the model can be up, transmitting live TV and taking high-quality stills, whilst the full-size is still in transit.
Don't be arrogant and dismiss the "volunteers" out of hand!....have you ever stopped to think, " who trained the professionals, where did the trainers learn?"
Empirical knowledge or self-appointed "experts" that's how!
Sit down, analyse and collate and suddenly you have a professional framework.....add all the back -covering and then Nero starts fiddling whilst Rome burns.
Of course this is all total crap, 'cos after all, I'm not a professional, so therefore don't know what i'm talking about.