Although the health authorities have announced it, the helicopter emergency medical service cannot be introduced this year because the helicopter acquisition takes at least a year, which is the usual delivery deadline for new helicopters. The state plans to buy new emergency helicopters, which is clear from the amount of 34.6 million euro, which includes an investment in the purchase of four helicopters and the training of teams which would use them. The price of a single helicopter is about eight million euros, reports Večernji List on January 2, 2019.
The state plans to buy the helicopters, but the service will be managed by a private company, with three permanent and three seasonal bases. How will this public-private cooperation work and when will Croatia really get a helicopter emergency medical service, these are questions the answers to which should be given by a feasibility study which the Ministry of Health has declared to be a non-public document. It is not known who declared this document to be a secret, but it is understood that the study has been drafted by two consulting companies which received 157,900 kuna from the budget.
What the “secret study” suggests is not known even to the HELP association (Helicopters Assist Physicians), whose president Mladen Tureček believes that the helicopter emergency service in Croatia should work according to the tried and tested model of Germany and Austria.
“It should be a civil service which is not paid from the state budget but is covered from various sources (beneficiaries), including by grants. Such a model does not allow the excessive number of employees. The proposed concept with three permanent and three seasonal bases does not meet the needs of Croatia. The proposed model does not cover enough population nor does it meet the ‘golden hour’ criterion for everyone. Four helicopters are not enough to cover their six-base model or our five-to-eight base proposal,” said Tureček, adding that, if new helicopters are to be acquired, it is impossible to establish the service this year.
The government plans to establish three permanent bases: Zagreb, Krk and Split. However, as Tureček explains, if such a plan is adopted, there will be significant parts of Croatia which will remain out of reach of the helicopter emergency medical service during the so-called golden hour.
“Golden hour” is a one-hour period after the call about an incident has been received. Patients should be transported to a health institution before the hour is over. With the three permanent bases, areas such as Zadar, Gospić, Slavonia and the far south of the country would be left without the service. If the plan is to solve this problem with seasonal bases in Dubrovnik, Slavonski Brod and Karlovac, the question is – what will happen during the period of the year when the seasonal bases are closed?
Translated from Večernji List (reported by Ivana Rimac Lesički).
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