Gama Aviation is launching two initiatives that continue to build its medical services offer in the UK by introducing a new air ambulance service specifically aimed at the motorsport, events and film/TV industry, and with a new medical repatriation service into and out of the country.

The sports and film service seeks to provide fully crewed turnkey helicopter emergency services for situations that require additional medical infrastructure to support a specific safety case or insurance requirement. The service will offer helicopter air ambulance support that is fully crewed, allowing a variety of options to be deployed depending on the event, location and medical support requirement.

The company is predicting interest in the 'HEMS for hire' offer that will see its Airbus H145 D2, G-GMAH deployed. The aircraft, equipped for day and night operations will fly under a single pilot and technical crew member model with the medical team being allocated according to the required mission type.

Special missions medical director Dr Simon Forrington says: “Scotland and the North of England contain stunning scenery that has long attracted TV and film makers from around the world; in turn, this has bought new extreme sporting events to those locations. These events require a strong, onsite, medical team with appropriate medevac resources that can be tailored to satisfy each events’ medical safety and risk obligations. With our capability we can offer both.”

Special missions managing director Mark Smith continues: “We have air ambulance locations in the north and south of country, allowing us to provide coverage across the UK. The 'HEMS for hire' service is ideally suited for motorsport and film/TV locations that may require immediate medevac assistance. Given NHS resources are often operating at near peak capacity, I don't think any insurer or organiser should necessarily think that local resources will be able fulfil a medical mission requirement at the drop of a hat.”

Its new medical repatriation service will combine Gama's Dorset-based medical team with its own dedicated air ambulance aircraft, those of audited third parties and commercial airlines to provide medical care when repatriating patients into or from the UK. The service has been in trial over the past two months after the abatement of COVID-19 commercial flight restrictions.

Forrington says: “We have now successfully delivered a number of these missions, including supporting patients moving from Qatar, Mumbai, Indonesia and around Europe. We expect an increase in seasonal repatriation requests as both the business and leisure market opens up after nearly two years of stasis due to COVID-19.”

Smith adds: “Our aim is to provide a single point of contact for private individuals, insurers and governments that will ensure loved ones are repatriated with the utmost care and attention. To do so, we passionately believe that we need to own the challenge and provide a true bed-to-bed service. You simply cannot do the part of the job that suits you. As such we believe that this new service offers insurers and governments an efficient one-stop solution to repatriating citizens in their time of need.”