A twin-engine Bell 412 helicopter, this aircraft can transport two patients on stretchers with two medical staff (doctor and intensive care nurse) throughout Morocco. Dr Herve Raffin of Medic’Air commented: “When necessary, it is now easy to transfer injured or sick tourists to Casablanca or Marrakesh for proper medical care or to international airports to facilitate their repatriation when journeys by road are long and – outside the rapidly growing motorway network – very uncomfortable and unsafe. A first flight was made from Fes in a single stretcher configuration.”

The number of private clinics and hospitals is increasing in the major Moroccan cities, such as Casablanca, Rabat, Fes, and Marrakesh, but at an inconsistent level, and with very variable rates for the patients. For international visitors and expatriates, the first challenge is to know where to go in case of acute problem, and how to go there.

The Kingdom has two State helicopter medical services: the military medical helicopters of the Royal Gendarmerie in charge of rescue but difficult to trigger and the dedicated helicopters of the SAMU (EMS units with doctors on board from university hospitals) in some provincial cities (Layoahun, Tangier, Oujda, Marrakesh). Their missions are limited to the transfer of patients from small hospitals to only public university hospitals.