Moments and lives will be saved during Wairarapa crisis flights with the long-awaited posting of paramedics to the Westpac Rescue Helicopter base in Wellington.
Helicopter crewman Dave Greenberg said yesterday a joint initiative between the Life Flight Trust and Wellington Free Ambulance involves four paramedics, who will be rostered from 8am
to 8pm at the rescue chopper base from November 1.
"Right now if we got a call to Riversdale we would arrive about the same time as the road ambulance from Masterton. But with a paramedic already with us, we would undoubtedly beat the road ambulance to that call
"It means we don't have to pick up a third party en route like we do now and we don't have to deal with air traffic control twice. It's all about speed," Mr Greenberg said.
"In those cases where seconds and minutes count, we're going to save seconds and minutes. If someone is drowning or suffers a heart attack we will arrive five or 10 minutes sooner and can certainly save their lives."
He said paramedics at Wellington Free Ambulance have for many years performed air
Wellington Free Ambulance chief executive Alan O'Beirne said basing an intensive care paramedic at Life Flight would get the helicopter in the air even faster.
"For areas such as Kapiti, dispatch by road or air used to have similar timeframes. However, with a paramedic on base the Westpac Rescue Helicopter is faster to the scene and is likely therefore to be dispatched more frequently to areas such as Kapiti and Wairarapa."
Life Flight chief executive David Irving said the initiative is a "great enhancement to the region's already world class air rescue service".
Wellington Free Ambulance and Life Flight have been working together for decades providing urgent medical care for patients in the Greater Wellington Region, Mr Irving said.
Both organizations are charities, he said, with the trust also operating a national air ambulance service and Wellington Free Ambulance the only free-to-patient road ambulance provider in the country.
