HEMS & COVID-19

[[email protected]]

A face mask but no gloves???? he has not read the guidance I guess

[DOUBLE BOGEY]

Originally Posted by chopper2004

And it would hamper flight safety especially those who fly H145.

How would it hamper flight safety??? If he can talk through the filter and see through his visor - Job Done.

[Flying Bull]

Originally Posted by [email protected]

A face mask but no gloves???? he has not read the guidance I guess

well, the GTN750, which you use/need for changing frequencies, is a touchscreen
wont work with most gloves....
so desinfect the hands before and after each flight 😏

[chopper2004]

Originally Posted by DOUBLE BOGEY

How would it hamper flight safety??? If he can talk through the filter and see through his visor - Job Done.

Beg your pardon I forgot to put the NOT in the sentence as I was typing from my ipad lol... so job done and think said pilot probably wore gloves for flying just not at that point of the photo shoot.

Cheers

[Evil Twin]

Originally Posted by Flying Bull

well, the GTN750, which you use/need for changing frequencies, is a touchscreen
wont work with most gloves....
so desinfect the hands before and after each flight 😏

Really? Our 750’s work fine with gloved hands. I do wear touch screen compatible nomex gloves but they operate the 750 and iPad perfectly well

[[email protected]]

FB - surely they should be disinfecting the GTN750 every flight

[trim it out]

Originally Posted by Evil Twin

Really? Our 750’s work fine with gloved hands. I do wear touch screen compatible nomex gloves but they operate the 750 and iPad perfectly well

I can confirm GTNs work fine with cape leather gloves too 👍🏼

[Radgirl]

The issue is not only the masks and gloves but how you put them on and take them off.

Flying overalls are quite good as they are absorbent. They will absorb the fomite so as long as you remove them without contaminating your hands and leave them to dry for 24 hours you probably will be somewhat protected. But leather jackets on top add to the complexity. How do you don and doff helmets, and clean them, and after all that we have a picture of everyone huddled together potentially touching contaminated aprons.

We are now ever more aware that the severity of the illness is proportionate to viral load. In flight with vents open and side windows open the pilot is somewhat protected, and even the medical crew will be breathing low ppm. However, on the ground posing together for a photo just increases risk

Stay safe. Think before you touch. Assess if you can distance. Wash hands again and again

[PANews]

The latest 'casualties' are the second Yorkshire aircraft and Northern Ireland's Air Ambulance, the latter grounded as specialist medical staff are diverted to deal with the pandemic.

The suspension of the Helicopter Emergency Medical Service came into effect at 7pm on April 3.

Most of the others have said they are continuing but I suspect others will inevitably join those grounded.

[Arcal76]

We are here to provide a service !!
Do they do social distancing inside hospitals ?????
We clean all time everything, we monitor ourselves, if anybody as symptoms, he is off for 3 weeks. We do what we can.
Are you gone shut down any ambulance running in the world ????

[onceajungly]

Has anyone seen or had access to a comprehensive aviation risk management plan for conducting HEMS during COVID19 and/or inter hospital transfers with known or suspected COVID19 patients?

[handysnaks]

Arcal76. What do you do to mitigate the risk for the average 5 days before any symptoms show or if any of your crews are asymptomatic?

[finalchecksplease]

Originally Posted by handysnaks

Arcal76. What do you do to mitigate the risk for the average 5 days before any symptoms show or if any of your crews are asymptomatic?

IMHO the best way to mitigates to pair the crews (front & rear + engineering) together and if one of them show symptoms isolate them all, this way you reduce the chance of cross contamination. Also no face to face handovers between crews.
You can always make a case to your NAA to get exemptions for the FTL requirements if rostering this way infringes these, especially if one crew needs to self isolate.

[Fostex]

That is true but in terms of most HEMS crews, flight and clinical are operating completely different rotas.

For example, considering a single aircraft HEMS crew of Pilot + TCM/Para + Doc the team serving that aircraft might consist of...

2 pilots, each working 15 days/mth
6 para, each working 5 days/mth
15 docs, each working 2 days/mth

Working means with the aircraft, ready to be tasked, other duties not considered.

Based on the above.

- It will almost impossible to consistently pair crews
- If ventilated patients are being transferred and AGPs carried out, the pilots have the potential to get considerable exposure to AGPs. Meaning high viral load and an associated greater risk of morbidity.
- The critical path in terms of resourcing the crew is the pilots getting sick and needing to isolate.

[Radgirl]

If ventilated patients are being transferred and AGPs carried out, the pilots have the potential to get considerable exposure to AGPs

It is intubation that is a AGP. Once the patient is intubated the airway is isolated and no aerosol produced. Intubation in the cabin must be very rare and is poor clinical judgement. Certainly you would NEVER need to do so on a known Covis 19 positive patient. So if the pilot stays back and wears a FFP3 mask or a reusable mask with a P3 filter plus eye protection there is no risk

[Arcal76]

We do what has been told to us.
If we any symptoms or temperature above 38 C, we are out of the building, we are not allowed to stay in this case We check our temperature every time we enter the building.
Yes, it is not perfect since you could have the virus with no symptoms, but it is the same for everybody since we only test people who have symptoms in Canada.
We also have a land ambulance system operated by our company, so the dispatch decide with our doctors what is the best way to transfer this patient.
You do have to transfer patients who are possibly positive but do not have their test result yet.
Everybody is aware, we don't minimize the potential risk and we know it is there.
Our system try to manage it, we do a lot of cleaning, like never before, office, keyboard, cockpit, everything.
I went to trough SARS 2002/2003, H1N1 2009, we never did so much.
We have been asked to be available any time when we are off to be able to provide the service.

[Jimmy.]

An Italian HEMS pilot named Stefano Burigana shared an Operator's Safety Bulletin on his profile on LinkedIn that may be useful for someone.

[cpt]

Originally Posted by Jimmy.

An Italian HEMS pilot named Stefano Burigana shared an Operator's Safety Bulletin on his profile on LinkedIn that may be useful for someone.

Thank you Jimmy for this synoptic but comprehensive document.

[nomorehelosforme]

UK Updates

Latest updates from UK HEMS, whilst dealing with Covid 19

Cornwall Air Ambulance will hopefully be assisting Devon Air Ambulance with their new AW 169

https://www.cornwalllive.com/news/co...-devon-4013938

Cornwall Air Ambulance may cover parts of Devon while the Devon Air Ambulance is grounded due to coronavirus concerns.

The Devon helicopter is grounded after declaring that the danger of exposure to a patient with coronavirus 'is an unacceptable risk'.
A statement explained that its pilots were unable to fly the aircraft while wearing personal protective equipment (PPE).

The nature of the aircraft means they come into close contact with patients, and there is no way of knowing if they have coronavirus or not.

And RAF helping Scottish Ambulance.No masks here???

https://www.heliopsmag.com/raf-helic...service-trials

[TUPE]

Originally Posted by nomorehelosforme

And RAF helping Scottish Ambulance.No masks here???

https://www.heliopsmag.com/raf-helic...service-trials

Trial with a manikin in a pod. Why would they wear masks?