Child Flight aircraft

Medical Helipads

Over the past few years, over 25 hospitals in the state of NSW which regularly send or receive critically ill patients have developed 'medical helipads'. A medical helipads is one which offers direct trolley access to key clinical areas which might utilise helicopter transport for patients being transferred out from or in to the hospital (such as the emergency department, intensive care and maternity unit). Time and effort is saved by avoiding road journeys from airports, sporting areas or parks. Such road journeys used to occcupy as much or more time as the flight itself and required ambulance crews and the vehicles to come off normal scene emergency work to assist in the transfer. Additionally, such areas often don't have adequate security from members of the public and require police or other security staff to provide crowd control.

Published standards now exist to assist hospitals in developing medical helipads. Hospitals with open surroundings (such as rural hospitals) have often achieved these requirements at minimal expenditure using available clear space adjacent to the hospital. A hard surface (concrete or bitumen) helipad, concrete pathway to the hospital, pad lighting and lit windsock is often possible through the efforts of local Service Clubs and the contribution of local people and the business community.

Larger hospitals now include medical helipads in construction or redevelopment plans - often using car parks as a convenient and secure location for a helipad. Tertiary hospitals are now tackling the greater problems of including medical helipads - a greater challenge since these hospitals usually exist in large, multi-role medical campuses in dense urban areas. Greater engineering, financial and environmental difficulties are posed than with the traditional ground helipad. While a certain amount of 'real estate' is required for a helicopter to land and unload, the bigger problem is usually the three dimensional air space required above the ground for a range of approach and departure paths to be available in varying wind conditions. The most desirable solution may be an elevated helipad which is not surrounded by obstructions.

The medical helipad at the Prince of Wales, Sydney Children's Hospital site at Randwick in eastern Sydney was developed with the assistance of Child Flight staff. In this picture, the Child Flight aircraft is shown alighting in pre-commissioning testing.

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