SCAA’s Helimed 76 and 79 crews put in a marathon shift on Thursday when they spent nearly 11 hours in the skies above Scotland taking emergency care to our most remote island communities.
While Aberdeen-based H79 made a landmark flight to Fair Isle to airlift a patient requiring urgent medical care to hospital at Lerwick, H76 was ensuring patients from Barra, Dunoon and Rothesay were airlifted to mainland hospital care in the fastest possible time.
SCAA’s Operations Manager Russell MacKay said the exhausting shift for both crews resulted in not only a lifeline for four patients but a record flying hours total for the charity.
“We’ve never had crews flying for ten hours and 50 minutes in any single day before,” he said. “This shows the dedication of our life-saving teams and the capability of our aircraft in reaching far beyond our mainland to support our most remote communities.”
The 449 mile round flight to Fair Isle and Shetland involved a refuel at Kirkwall on route and a second refuel at Sumburgh before the long flight home to Aberdeen – a total of 3 hours and 55 minutes in flight.
Perth-based H76 made its first flight of the day to Barra to transfer a patient to Ninewells Hospital at Dundee.
The crew was then tasked to airlift a patient from Dunoon to medical care at the Golden Jubilee Hospital, Clydebank, before a third call out took them to Rothesay where a patient required a transfer to the Royal Alexandra Hospital at Paisley.
The three missions saw H76 in the air for a total of 6 hours and 55 minutes.
“As our demand increases both on the mainland and in remote locations such as Fair Isle and Barra, the specialist medical care SCAA provides - along with our ability to respond quickly - highlights the importance of SCAA and the lifeline service we provide for people all over Scotland,” said Russell.
