Northern Ireland air ambulance a step closer
Northern Ireland Health Minister Simon Hamilton announced the key findings of the HEMS consultation including management and funding models.
Image: Health Minister Simon Hamilton (right) with Dr Janet Acheson (centre)
During a visit to Craigavon Area Hospital on 21 March, Northern Ireland Health Minister Simon Hamilton announced the key findings of the HEMS consultation including management and funding models, home base location, target patient groups and collaboration with other services. Attending the announcement was Dr Janet Acheson, partner of the late Dr John Hinds, who himself met with the Minister in June 2015 to discuss a way forward for the realisation of the province’s first HEMS system.
Hamilton commented: “John Hinds and I shared the same vision of a world class pre-hospital emergency service, and it is fitting that today we are here in his hospital base on what would have been his birthday, with his partner, Dr Janet Acheson, his family and many of his work colleagues announce that we are making his dream a reality. We will now develop a service specification for a daylight hours helicopter emergency medical service, which is physician led but also supported by paramedics. It will provide a primary response role initially for major trauma incidents and develop into a secondary response role helping, for example, heart attack and stroke patients, at an appropriate time in the future. This will be implemented by the Northern Ireland Ambulance Service as the Trust with lead responsibility for delivering the service, who will work closely with the five other Health and Social Care Trusts.”
The Minister added: “We will shortly begin the process of procurement and recruitment and sorting out staff rotas, and begin investing in enabling capital works on the helipad at the Major Trauma Centre at the Royal Victoria Hospital.”
The main HEMS base will be at Belfast International Airport, due to its proximity to the greatest number of potential missions, the Major Trauma Centre, the Northern Ireland Blood Transfusion Service, and a pool of physicians and paramedics from across the region who will staff HEMS rotas, said Hamilton.
Highlighting the future funding model for the continuation of the service the Minister said: “Whilst the Department of Health will be responsible for providing sufficient funds to ensure the continuity of the service in the long term, I am keen to explore the possibility of supporting the service through charitable funds. Through our consultation, the registered charity Air Ambulance Northern Ireland has come forward with proposals of how they would build a robust funding base in the local community. Indeed, best practice from other UK HEMS services indicates that this model can be highly successful in attracting funds to support the non-medical costs, and I think we can aspire towards.” He continued: “I am pleased to confirm recurrent funding of £250,000 for the Major Trauma Network and a further £250,000 from my Transformation Fund in 2016/17 to facilitate the necessary planning, preparation, recruitment and training to get us to a state of readiness for the HEMS to be put into operation. The Trauma Network board have also met and begun preparatory work including recruitment of trauma clinical leads that should be in position by August 2016.”
Welcoming the Minister’s announcement Dr Janet Acheson said: “This is a day of mixed emotions for all of the Hinds and Acheson families. Today as a family we should have been celebrating John’s 36th birthday. Last year, for his birthday, John’s mum Josephine gave him a model London HEMS helicopter because he had a dream of a world leading, trauma network with a doctor led HEMS at its core. That is now a huge step closer to reality.”
She added: “This is the start – this is where the work begins. Hopefully it will not take too long to literally ‘lift off”, but it is better to get it right than rush into a second class service. It takes time to build the right team and the right structure. John believed in high performance. We are honoured to be a part of this announcement today.”
The proposed service was given a boost recently after UK Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osbourne pledged to award £4 million taken from banking fines to help fund HEMS in Northern Ireland.