Japanese golf courses to become landing sites for emergency medical helicopters

Emergency medical helicopters are allowed to land at all golf courses in the Oita Prefecture of Japan.

They have become landing sites after an accident that happened at Usuki Country Club in the prefecture two years ago.

A customer who had a chronic heart condition fell ill while playing golf and the club called an ambulance. Treatment was performed in the road ambulance, but his condition worsened, leading to an air ambulance being called. The helicopter landed on the course and the customer was taken to hospital, but he later died.

After this event, the local fire department, the advanced critical care center of Oita University Hospital – the only hospital in the prefecture that deploys an air ambulance – and Cosmos Hospital in Usuki City proposed that they ‘set up and increase the number of landing points for air ambulances at other golf courses’.

In August last year, the purpose of the proposal was explained at a joint regular meeting of the Oita Golf Course Association and the Oita Golf Course Managers’ Association, and the approval of each golf course was obtained.

Now, all 21 golf courses in the prefecture have areas on which helicopters can be landed in the event of a medical emergency.