Medical evacuations out of conflict-affected areas are not only a matter of sending an aeroplane. If airspace is closed, or an airport cannot be reached, patients may need to be transported by armoured vehicle, escorted across an international border and handed over to an air ambulance, where it is safe to fly.
Wines recounted an evacuation in which a patient had to be removed from a region where aircraft could not fly. The team planned for ground transportation in an armoured vehicle with a security detail, and organised the patient’s movement to a border where an aircraft could reach them.
The team also assisted in obtaining the relevant visas. Once the patient was in the next country an aeroplane with a mobile critical care unit came, with a doctor, expert paramedic and nurse on board. “The patient was airlifted to the UAE where arrangements were made for onwards transfer to hospital.
The operation was controlled throughout the travel and the medical and logistical plans were adapted to the changing circumstances. The group had flown almost 1,000 hours in the last three to four months, three times as many as in the same period last year, Wines said. The flights included security duties and medical evacuations.
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