The Children’s Air Ambulance (TCAA) has introduced England’s first incubator on an English HEMS aircraft to assist specialist National Health Service (NHS) transport teams. The national transfer service provides the only intensive care aircraft in the country dedicated to transferring critically ill babies and children, at a high and safe speed, from local hospitals to specialist paediatric and neonatal treatment centres.

The charity, NHS Clinical Partner Teams at Embrace Yorkshire and Humberside Infant and Children Transport Service (Embrace), Bristol’s Newborn Emergency Stabilisation and Transfer (NEST), Southampton Oxford Neonatal Transport (SONeT), International Biomedical and Gama Aviation collaborated on a bespoke design, bringing three Neonatal Transport Systems onboard its AW 169s operated by Sloane Helicopters Ltd.

“Having the incubators will mean we can fly many more babies than we currently can. Before now, we were unable to safely use the helicopter to transfer our smaller infants, who need higher levels of support. This incubator means we will be able to get the smaller, more fragile babies to the specialist services they need more quickly, reducing the anxiety and worry of the parents,” explained Lead Nurse for NEST, Patrick Turton. “We will also be able to get babies and families back together after they’ve had this specialist input, avoiding long road journeys and reducing the time spent outside of hospital, so we’re really looking forward to continuing to work closely with TCAA to be able to provide this level of transport to support more babies and their families,” he added.

 

Leave a Reply