RVDT: "HEMS Crab old chap. NOT SAR.
Chalk and cheese."
Not so much ....
Many operations conduct SAR/HEMS and there is often very little to distinguish the classification of the actual mission. For instance, landing at a remote & dusty location on NVIS to transport a critical patient. SAR or HEMS in practical terms? Certainly a very different thing than Hosp' pad to Hosp' pad .... Anyway, semantics aside, I agree with Crab, that having some information on the patient's condition enables a "mature operator" to make a better, well informed risk v gain assessment. (by "mature operator", I mean an entire organisation that has the checks & balances in place to promote safe decision making)