Ambulance helicopter contribution to search and rescue in North Norway

Abstract

Background: Search and rescue (SAR) operations constitute a significant proportion of Norwegian ambulance helicopter missions, and they may limit the service's capacity for medical operations. We compared the relative contribution of the different helicopter resources using a common definition of SAR-operation in order to investigate how the SAR workload had changed over the last years.

Methods: We searched the mission databases at the relevant SAR and helicopter emergency medical service (HEMS) bases and the Joint Rescue Coordination Centre (North) for helicopter-supported SAR operations within the potential operation area of the Tromsø HEMS base in 2000-2010. We defined SAR operations as missions over land or sea within 10 nautical miles from the coast with an initial search phase, missions with use of rescue hoist or static rope, and avalanche operations.

Results: There were 769 requests in 639 different SAR operations, and 600 missions were completed. The number increased during the study period, from 46 in 2000 to 77 in 2010. The Tromsø HEMS contributed with the highest number of missions and experienced the largest increase, from 10 % of the operations in 2000 to 50 % in 2010. Simple terrain and sea operations dominated, and avalanches accounted for as many as 12 % of all missions. The helicopter crews used static rope or rescue hoist in 141 operations.

Discussion: We have described all helicopter supported SAR operations in our area by combining databases. The Tromsø HEMS service had taken over one half of the missions by 2010. Increased availability for SAR work is one potential explanation.

Conclusions: The number of SAR missions increased during 2000-2010, and the Tromsø HEMS experienced the greatest increase in workload.

Keywords: Air ambulance; Helicopter emergency medical service; Search and rescue.

Fig. 1

Map of North Norway and neighbour regions of Sweden, Finland and Russia. The limits of the study area is marked with thick black lines. Helicopter bases are indicated as +, and the geographic regions referred in the text are indicated. The closest HEMS bases in Finland and Sweden are indicated as *

Fig. 2

The annual number of search and rescue (SAR) missions for: a Requested and completed missions for all helicopter resources together. b SAR missions over the study period for the individual helicopter resources. The Hammerfest helicopter is omitted from the figure as it contributed with only one mission in 2000 and two in 2008. c SAR missions per year sorted by SAR category. d All SAR missions divided in missions above sea and land

Fig. 3

a The search and rescue (SAR) missions broken down by mission categories and shown for the individual helicopter resources, except the for the Hammerfest helicopter that contributed with only three missions during the study period. b The distribution of SAR categories in the geographical regions in the study area

Fig. 4

The number of persons rescued by hoist and static rope by the individual helicopter resources, and by all resources together, over the years 2000–2010. The Hammerfest helicopter rescued 26 persons in one single mission in 2000. This extraordinary mission was not included in the figure or when the simple regression line was calculated, only to illustrate the general trend over the study period

Fig. 5

The individual helicopter resources contribution to search and rescue missions in the different geographical regions of the study area