Wales gets 'flying doctors' service offering life-saving treatment

People in Wales are getting a ‘flying doctors’ service, giving critically-ill and injured patients access to life-saving treatment at the scene of an injury or accident.

The new service will be up and running from April next year.

Deputy Minister for Health, Vaughan Gething, said: “This new service will transform our ability to provide the very best care to the most critically-ill patients in Wales. It will provide patients in remote and rural areas of Wales with rapid access to the skills of a consultant in emergency or intensive care medicine, who are equipped to provide life-saving, specialist critical care.”

He added: “Our aim for specialist emergency services in Wales is for the most seriously-injured and sick patients to be treated by the very best clinicians, providing world-class, life-saving treatment. These highly-specialised services will be provided at a fewer number of hospitals in the future but they will be supported by a wider network of local hospitals, offering people access to local accident and emergency care.”

The Emergency Medical Retrieval and Transfer Service Cymru (EMRTS Cymru) is the first national service of its kind in the UK.

It is estimated EMRTS Cymru could contribute to at least a 40 per cent improvement in survival rates from major trauma in Wales and could reduce transfer times to specialist hospital care by more than 40 per cent.

The introduction of the new service, which will serve all Wales, will mean 95 per cent of the population will be able to access doctor-led care within 30 minutes.

The EMRTS Cymru service will be delivered by a team of highly-trained NHS doctors from emergency medicine, anaesthesia and intensive care working jointly with critical care paramedics from the Welsh Ambulance Service NHS Trust.

It will be delivered in partnership with the Wales Air Ambulance charity, using its existing three air ambulances.

Angela Hughes, chief executive of Wales Air Ambulance, said: “To secure NHS consultants on board our flights is a remarkable leap forward in providing one of the most advanced air ambulance services in the world.

“Over the last few years we have received incredible support from our fundraisers to upgrade our three helicopters and trial night flights, and the addition of doctors to all Wales Air Ambulance flights is another fantastic development in our service to people across Wales.”

EMRTS Cymru will be co-ordinated from a new hub being developed by the Welsh Ambulance Services NHS Trust, which will be staffed by paramedics, supported by NHS consultants.

The Welsh Government has earmarked capital funding of £1.895m in 2014-15 to set up the service, and recurrent revenue funding of £2.868m from 2015-16 to support the EMRTS Cymru service.