The end of Croatia’s emergency helicopter project?
Although patients from the islands and the Dalmatian hinterland were supposed to be left without emergency helicopter transport at the end of the week, since on January 9 the pilot program was supposed to end and the new government which must decide on the fate of the initiative has still not been formed, a temporary solution has been found: the service will remain available to patients for another two weeks, reports Index.hr on January 4, 2016.
In the past four months, Helicopter Emergency Medical Service has been proven as a great success, with medical teams and two helicopters having a total of 219 emergency interventions from 9 September to 31 December. The outgoing Deputy Health Minister Miljenko Bura said that the current government has managed to reach an agreement with the Italian companies which provide emergency helicopter transport about a two-week extension of the provision of services, based on the Law on Public Procurement which allows contracting services to be temporarily extended. However, the long-term fate of the project is uncertain.
“The outgoing government cannot leave patients without emergency helicopter transport. The project has increased the availability and quality of healthcare for people on the islands and in the Dalmatian hinterland, which have been taken care of mostly within the so-called golden hour, usually within 45 minutes”, Bura said.
The two helicopters involved in the care of emergency patients are based on the islands of Krk and Brač and are much faster than military helicopters which used to transport patients. They need just four minutes from the first call to take off and are equipped with all the necessary medical equipment.
The Ministry of Health is particularly proud of the fact that, in cases of patients with heart problems and stroke, all 64 of them have been taken care of within the golden hour. Bura added that this service has been a less expensive solution, considering that an hour of flight of a medical helicopter costs less than an hour of flight of military transport helicopter.
