Magazine Helicopter Industry #102

©HIOWAA ©Charlotte Cotronis
FRENCH EMERGENCY MEDICAL
SERVICE HELICOPTERS
IN THE FRONT LINE
Helicopter medical rescue, in France, switched in “Covid-19
mode”. A business manager of SAF Hélicoptères, one of
four companies beside Babcock, MBH and NHV serving
the Service d’aide médicale urgente (SAMU) in the
country, including French overseas territories, recalls the
arrangements made the benefit of hospitals and their
patients.
Basically, their mission doesn’t change beyond measure.
Transporting patients from one hospital to another in suitable
safety and sanitary conditions is, indeed, their daily tasks.
Since the appearance of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, helicopter
transport companies under contract with care facilities, in
France, saw evolve the order of priorities. «Apart from any
crisis situation, SAF Hélicoptères transports 5 500 patients per
year, carries out 7 000 missions in about 6 000 flight hours.
In full Covid-19 epidemic, it’s impossible for the time being to
predict if this activity level will be matched or exceeded. But it is
certain that the mobilization of crews and helicopters is total»,
said Marc Latour, helicopter pilot, business development
manager at SAF Hélicoptères. Total, indeed, and everybody
knows why. From the French people point of view, the peak
of the epidemic seems to be in the process of being reached.
In other words, the crisis took unseen proportions until then.
In Paris area, where healthcare infrastructure is known as
the largest in Europe, facilities are saturated.
To free up space in intensive care units
The medical rescue helicopter is called to play a new role,
in addition to the one he usually plays. It’s implemented to
free up beds in saturated intensive care units, transporting
patients to more or less distant facilities able to accommodate
them. «Our other activity areas, such as aerial work, passenger
transportation (both VIP and tourists) and training, record a
sharp decline. The usual medical transportation also tends
to decrease, because the medical emergency isn’t managed
as it usually is», said Marc Latour. In these dark hours,
the 16 helicopters deployed by SAF Hélicoptères from
their ten air bases (most of them are located south of a
Toulouse-Besançon line) are now solicited on a new field of
operations. «Crews must serve hospital platforms they aren’t
necessarily used to go to.» History will perhaps remember
that at the start of the epidemic, doctors didn’t plan to use
helicopters to transport patients infected with SARS-CoV-2.
But the speed of virus propagation as well as the number of
registered cases in a to short period of time changed their
minds.
Protected crews
Simultaneously, this unexpected transportation mission
required new measures: the crew protection – pilot and
flight attendant. «Crews wear protection masks at least. When
it comes to transport people infected with the Covid-19 virus
and showing signs of acute pathology, we erected a separation
barrier between the cockpit and the cabin where doctors,
nurses and patients take place. This barrier is materialized by
a kind of plastic transparent tarpaulin. As it is confirmed that
the patient is infected with the SARS-CoV-2, in addition to the
mask, our staffs wear a cap covering the hair and the ears,
protection glasses and gloves.» It is clear that the culture of
medical emergency, year after year accumulated experience
in association with the medical staff greatly facilitates the
task of all the professionals involved in a fight that no one
expected.
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