Toll Rescue Helicopter Service launched in NSW
Toll Group has officially launched the Toll Rescue Helicopter Service in partnership with New South Wales (NSW) Ambulance.
Toll Group has officially launched the Toll Rescue Helicopter Service in partnership with New South Wales (NSW) Ambulance to provide greater aeromedical services to communities in the Southern Zone of NSW, Australia. Patient rescue, retrieval and treatment services are now operating from the new Toll & NSW Ambulance Rescue Helicopter Base in Sydney, the company reported. The new Southern Zone contract operated by Toll Helicopters will include rescue helicopter bases at Bankstown, Wollongong and Orange and Canberra.
The Toll and NSW Ambulance rescue helicopter fleet is made up of eight new, purpose-built AW139s, which Toll said will help NSW Ambulance helicopter doctors and paramedics to reach patients in remote areas faster than ever before.
The contact forms part of the NSW Government’s new $151.2 million state-wide Helicopter Retrieval Network. Under the NSW Government’s Reform Plan for Aeromedical (Rotary Wing) Retrieval Services in NSW, the state has been divided into two distinct aeromedical retrieval zones – the Northern Zone and Southern Zone.
Mark Delany, General Manager Toll Helicopters, said this contract ‘represents the start of a long-term partnership to deliver world class aeromedical and rescue services to NSW’. He continued: “The communities of NSW and [the Australian Capital Territory] can be assured that they have the safest and most capable aviation operation supporting their ambulance care. We have extensive experience in helicopter services, and our pilots and aircrew are some of the most highly experienced and trained aviation professionals in the country.”
Commissioner Dominic Morgan, chief executive of NSW Ambulance, commented: “With a team of a NSW Ambulance doctor and paramedic, or a doctor and nurse, available for every flight, the new highly sophisticated fleet of [AW139 helicopters] will ensure we are even better equipped to care for communities of NSW, now and into the future.”
The crews will be trained at the Aeromedical Crewing Excellence (ACE) Training Centre, which commenced operations in October 2016.
Toll noted that while operationally the changes for NSW Ambulance aeromedical crew are minimal, the public should note the new helicopter fleet is white, with the NSW Ambulance roundel and Toll logo, not red and white as NSW Ambulance helicopters had been previously.