Archive: Help from the air

Another picture from the past. And as the fire department has got all the attention so far, this time it's the ambulance service. Not our own ambulance service here in town, but the Lifeliner helicopter from Amsterdam.

In The Netherlands there are four Lifeliner helicopters used by Mobile Medical Teams (MMT). They are based in Amsterdam (Lifeliner 1), Rotterdam (Lifeliner 2), Nijmegen (Lifeliner 3) and Groningen (Lifeliner 4). The teams are being dispatched to medical emergencies where a doctor is needeed as quickly as possible to assist with patient care. The nearest available MMT will be sent to any call, which means that, depending on availability and other calls in the same area, basically all teams can be sent to anywhere in the country. It is even possible for teams near the border (Lifeliners 3 and 4) to be sent into Germany.

The MMT crews consist of a pilot, a paramedic and a doctor. As opposed to what many people think, in most cases the helicopter is not used to transport a patient. It is a way to get a doctor to the patient as quickly as possible, after which the patient will be taken to hospital by land ambulance, if necessary accompanied by the MMT doctor. This is the case because in The Netherlands distances are relatively small and the nearest hospital is never too far away. Only in a very small percentage of all cases patients will be flown to a hospital in the helicopter.

The helicopters operate 24 hours a day, all year long. When visibility is poor and the helicopters cannot fly the MMT will go to the patient by car.