Next-generation air ambulance services using eVTOL aircraft are under consideration in India through a partnership between Manipal Hospital Old Airport Road, Sarla Aviation and Aeromed International Rescue Services.

The three organisations recently signed a tripartite memorandum of understanding, bringing together Sarla Aviation’s eVTOL technology, Manipal Hospitals’ network of hospitals and clinical expertise, and Aeromed’s experience in air ambulance and medical evacuation services. The aim is to develop a system that can transport patients directly between their location and the appropriate hospital, helping reduce delays caused by road traffic and long-distance travel.

The collaboration will focus on developing the aircraft’s medical cabin, establishing patient transfer procedures and identifying medical routes where faster transportation could make a critical difference. The partners will also work on emergency transfers for trauma, heart attacks, strokes, newborns requiring specialised care and organ transplantation.

The teams will jointly work on designing the medical bay and integrating essential equipment into Sarla Aviation’s Shunya eVTOL aircraft, while keeping patient safety and comfort at the centre. They will also develop standard procedures for transferring patients between ground ambulances, the aircraft and hospitals, including protocols for situations where patients require urgent escalation of care.

Training programmes, insurance and safety frameworks, as well as research into patient outcomes, will also form part of the collaboration.

India’s Minister of Civil Aviation Kinjarapu Ram Mohan Naidu says: “What we have to now provide is seamless connectivity from the airport to the doorstep. That is where this will be very, very instrumental. With the kind of urbanisation and increase in population that we are seeing, we have to bring in new technologies to cater to that.”

A dedicated air ambulance service that can avoid congested roads and connect patients more quickly to specialised medical care could help make emergency and inter-hospital transfers faster and more efficient.

Manipal Hospitals chairman Dr H. Sudarshan Ballal says: “Healthcare is constantly evolving, and our responsibility is to embrace innovations that can make care more accessible, timely and effective. The integration of advanced aviation technology with our healthcare expertise has the potential to significantly transform emergency and inter-hospital patient transfers. Through this collaboration, we hope to help shape a safe, clinically robust and scalable model for next-generation air ambulance services in India, with the patient firmly at the centre.”