On 10/03/2013 22:21, Dave Liquorice wrote:
On Sun, 10 Mar 2013 21:48:52 +0000, SteveW wrote:

3) They can transport patients with back or neck injuries without the
bumps of road transport.

You can get some quite nasty vibrations in a helicopter, particulary in
hover but generally yes a smoother journey than some potholed A road. And
cornering doesn't shove you sideways like it does in a car.


The other things that some appear to forget include..

They can't always land next to the patient and they have to be
transported to the helicopter often by an ambulance.

They can't fly in bad weather so you have to maintain a full road
ambulance cover even if you have air ambulances.

Many can't operate at night so don't have an accident at night.

You could have an extra 20 - 30 paramedics on bikes for the cost of one
air ambulance that is usable for about 60% of the time, just think of
how many heart attack victims that would save.