Waikato Westpac, Greenlea report busy January

New Zealand’s Waikato Westpac Rescue Helicopter reported that it has carried out a total of 77 missions in January across Waikato, King Country, Coromandel and surrounding regions in January.

This included 44 inter-hospital transfers, 14 medical events, seven motor vehicle accidents, three rescues, as well as nine responses to incidents in rural or remote locations.

Of these, 73 per cent of callouts were for injuries rather than illnesses. The figures were also dominated by missions to Coromandel, with almost thirty per cent (21) of all missions for the month being to the peninsula.

Greenlea found that a quarter of all missions for the month were in Rotorua

Fellow PSRT service Greenlea Rescue Helicopter also reported a busy start to the year, with a total of 56 missions carried out in January – almost double the figure recorded for December, when they carried out just 31 missions.

This included 22 inter-hospital transfers, five rescues, nine medical events, six motor vehicle incidents and 14 callouts to rural or remote locations.

The figures were dominated by missions to Rotorua, where Greenlea Rescue Helicopter carried out 14 missions – constituting 25 per cent of all missions for the provider for the month. Other hotspots included Tongariro Crossing (five) and Turangi (two).

On a particularly hectic 2 January, the Greenlea Rescue Helicopter crew was required to carry out a total of five rescue missions in 12 hours.