International air ambulance provider Medical Rescue has joined the France-headquartered International Assistance Group (IAG) as an accredited service provider. With a dedicated jet based in Brisbane supported by additional medically configured aircraft on the Gold Coast and Sydney, Medical Rescue will provide aeromedical evacuations from New Zealand, Southeast Asia, the Pacific Rim and Hawaii as well as the vast Australian landscape. That coverage is strengthened with a sub-base in Singapore also accessing high-quality medical care.

The company specialises in providing remote-area medical solutions, caring for more than 6,000 patients each year and employing more than 150 staff across Australia and New Zealand who are all accredited within the Australian healthcare system. In addition to fixed wing air ambulance missions, it has extensive experience in rotary wing evacuations and provides on-the-ground urgent care centres to the southern hemisphere's largest ski resorts. It also counts mining companies, the Australian Defence Force and the Australian government amongst its clients.

“We are delighted to become a member of the IAG and offer an additional air ambulance capability to members needing to move someone to or from the Asia Pacific region. Importantly, becoming a member has enabled us to meet with partner air ambulance providers in the northern hemisphere enabling a true global capability to move patients from our region to anywhere in the world, or to bring them back to Australia,” says MD Dr Glenn McKay.

“We have been providing aeromedical air ambulance services for more than 10 years now and have a capability to reach most destinations in the region, and a good understanding of the logistics and healthcare systems available in the region, so we are all to happy to help with air ambualnce transfers, commercial escorts or to just offer advice to members who are not as familiar with our part of the world.”

“The region is geographically dispersed and demanding, so we are delighted that Medical Rescue will provide additional resource and expertise to the partner organisations within the IAG,” says IAG general manager Louise Heywood.

Mumbai-based Hi Flying Air Ambulance International has a central office in India with hubs in the Philippines, Singapore and UAE and will be providing both air ambulance medical transports as well as medical escort services in this growing region.

Drawing on over 20 years of experience dealing with the complexities in demanding areas, the company taps into an established network of aircraft types that can be deployed as air ambulances quickly and cost-effectively. Since its first fixed-wing air ambulance mission in 1996, over 3,500 medical evacuations have been arranged to date through both commercial airlines and private charter.

Personnel are deployed according to a five-tier selection process, enabling a wide variety of missions to be conducted. In-house 24/7 IATA ticketing quickly accesses possible commercial airline options, including stretcher, first-class and business class transfers with the appropriate medical escorts equipment. Thirty five per cent of commercial airline work involves stretchers, and where an air ambulance needs to be deployed, Hi Flying's network includes turboprops suited for domestic transfers as well as jets for long-range work. International air ambulance transfers constitute 80 per cent of its work-load.

The company recently attained ISO 9001:2015 for its quality management systems, an important factor in its selection as it sources the highest quality providers to support its members, wherever possible.

Originally formed in 1991 to provide critical care ground transportation in Mumbai, Hi Flying has developed into an international company, registered in the US with a 24/7 operations centre in Mumbai. Medical director Dr Nitin Yende comments: “Patient safety is absolutely paramount in all of our work, and my focus is on the quality of the medical teams deployed as well as the equipment and protocols used. We have to maintain the flexibility to use a wide variety of aircraft types over a wide area, not only to fulfil the medical needs of patients but also with a keen eye on costs. Cost containment is of paramount importance to most clients these days.”