Air ambulances are flying intensive care units

Zimbabwe has begun setting up its first-ever air ambulance service after taking delivery of 18 helicopters from Russia last year. Experts from Russia’s largest private helicopter centre, Helidrive, are presently in the country to train local pilots and medical personnel on operating the state-of-the-art aircraft. The Sunday Mail’s EMMANUEL KAFE interviewed the company’s development director, MS JULIA YATSENKO, on this milestone.

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Q: Can you outline the scope of your planned work in Zimbabwe?

A: We are in the country to start work following President Mnangagwa’s visit to Russia.

We have brought the best of pilots, doctors and engineers to train their local counterparts and impart skills on those who will be using the air ambulances.

We will be training 40 pilots, 40 doctors, 100 nurses and 10 engineers.

At the moment, we have 18 helicopters, with six deployed to the Zimbabwe Republic Police, while some have been set aside for tourism operations. The pilots will be trained at Charles Prince Airport, while the doctors and nurses are being trained at Harare Central Hospital (now Sally Mugabe Central Hospital), where we are also creating an emergency medical call centre.

The second phase of training will be in Bulawayo, Victoria Falls and Mutare.

We have already started training 16 people and what we need right now is to start finding and training pilots in September.

The local pilots do not have the special certificate required to fly these specialised helicopters, because it’s a special type of helicopter inside, which is produced in Russia.

We will require several months — between two to five months — to train them and certify them to fly these helicopters.

The pilots are required to have specific flight hours to be able to fly these helicopters.

A pilot’s experience is measured in flight hours; so, for example, if you have 1 000 flight hours, that would be taken as your experience.

We are also going to train medical personnel, because the helicopter ambulances are operated by a team of two pilots and two medics — one doctor and one nurse.

What we did is we took the best staff from Russia and brought them here because they are the best people to give and share experiences with their local counterparts.

Q: Can you outline the specific capabilities of these helicopters?

A: They are basically flying intensive care units.

So, every single thing that you find inside a sophisticated hospital ward, you will find it inside this helicopter.

So, there are no limitations to the type of care a patient in whatever condition can receive.

You can even take a severely injured or ill patient inside the helicopter and treat them while you are en route to the hospital.

So, the whole concept is that we don’t bring a patient to hospital, but we take the hospital, put it inside a helicopter and bring it directly to the patient.

This significantly improves outcomes in situations where a patient has suffered severe injuries such as internal bleeding, myocardial infractions, heart attacks, strokes, brain damage and stuff like that.

The helicopters are especially useful in cases where time matters.

The ambulances are especially useful during that period referred to as the golden hour, when a patient is in a critical condition.

This refers to that limited time when you need a patient to be in hospital within an hour to ensure that a life is saved.

So, you simply move the hospital to the patient.

Q: How many air ambulances are set to be operating in Zimbabwe?

A: Right now, we have launched two helicopters, and we want to launch six helicopters by the end of the year.

After that, we will decide if we need to add more or not, because six is quite a good number of helicopters to start with for a country the size of Zimbabwe.

We are going to have two in Harare, two in Bulawayo, one in Victoria Falls and one in Mutare.

We are working with and for the Ministry of Health and Child Care, and we are ready to do whatever they tell or direct us to do.

They know better about places where there may be need for more helicopters.

That is why right now I think six helicopters, as a start, are enough to cover the whole country.

And after that, we will get more helicopters if the Ministry of Health decides to make this decision.

Q: How long will you be assisting in setting up the air ambulance service?

A: We have been operating in Russia for eight years and there we operate nearly 100 helicopters.

We cover all of Russia and we have a great dispatch and training centre.

That is what we are imagining for Zimbabwe.

I think that three years will be a good minimum period for us to make sure that local people are prepared in a good way to operate these on their own.

And after that, we will decide . . . for example, maybe some of our staff will remain here.

Our main aim in this project is to give adequate experience to the local people and create a good working environment for them.

Q: How do you see the air ambulance help improve health delivery in Zimbabwe?

A: In Russia, for example, we have helped save a great number of people from death after accidents because the helicopters were always on time to pick them up and send them to the nearest hospital.

Others were treated in the air ambulance.

Considering that there are also a lot of car accidents here in Zimbabwe, I believe this project will go a long way in helping people who have been involved in car accidents.

We want to be able to save lives of pregnant women as well. Given the traffic jams on most roads in parts of the country, an air ambulance could be ideal to transport a pregnant woman who is at a critical stage.

From the data we have seen, there is a very high rate of death among pregnant women in Zimbabwe.

So, for pregnant women and children under one year and accident victims, an air ambulance is efficient and can respond in no time and help save a life.

Q: Have you worked in any other country in Africa before?

A: This is our first pilot project in Africa and it is good that Zimbabwe is the only African country with these specialised air ambulances from Helidrive.

These Russia-made helicopters are very strong and efficient.