[Reliability of air ambulances--a survey in three municipalities in Helgeland?].

BACKGROUND

The Norwegian health authorities have promised the population equal health service, also in the most remote areas; the air ambulance system is important in reaching this goal. It is likely that changes in hospitals' systems for emergency preparedness will increasingly require air ambulance transport. We wanted to find out how reliable the air ambulance is in a remote area with difficult accessibility.

MATERIAL AND METHODS

Data have been retrieved from the air ambulance's database and quality-assured against the database for the acute medical services in a three-month period (1 November 2006 - to 31 October 2007).

RESULTS

105 calls were recorded from the area assessed. Reliability of the services was best in June and July, when all requests were served. The helicopter was only available for 7 of 24 requests from November to February. During the entire year, 79 requests were considered medically necessary and of these the helicopter was only available for 42.

INTERPRETATION

Our survey indicates that a considerable part of the population has poor air ambulance regularity during the winter. This must be taken into consideration when planning emergency health service.