New medical plane from the Canary Islands Emergency Service

 

The president of the Canary Islands, Ángel Víctor Torres, presented today, Friday, September 30, the new medical transport service with an advanced life support plane of the Canary Islands Emergency Service (SUC), which has been awarded through the public company Gestión de Services for Health and Safety in the Canary Islands (GSC) to Eliance Aviation Global Services SLU and which comes into operation on October 1, tomorrow, Saturday.

 

The total value of the contract amounts to 8 million euros, taking as reference the availability price of the aircraft and the annual flight hours for the next four years.

 

The head of the Executive highlighted at the event held at the Gran Canaria airport that with the incorporation of this new medical plane, “one more step” is taken in the improvement of public health in the Canary Islands, and pointed out that the new aircraft is of “ the most modern and complete that exist right now.” Torres recalled that the plane presented replaces another one that was 40 years old. The current one, he continued, has state-of-the-art medical equipment.

 

The contract includes the possibility of extension for one year and is 85% co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), within the Canary Islands Operational Program.

 

 

 

 

At the presentation event, which was held at the Gran Canaria airport, the Minister of Health, Blas Trujillo, was present; the Minister of Public Administrations, Justice and Security and at the same time president of the public company GSC, Julio Pérez; the president of the GSC Executive Commission, Alicia Álvarez, and the territorial directors of the SUC in Las Palmas and Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Juan Carlos Espino and Faustino Redondo, among other attendees.

 

For the Minister of Health, Blas Trujillo, the renewal of this service will result in better patient care, since it will mean a qualitative leap both in the technical characteristics and electromedical equipment of the turboprop plane and in the possibility of having a reactor. for scheduled flights.

 

In relation to this same issue, Julio Pérez referred to the fact that security and emergency services are those to which “citizens pay the most attention” and have to “work very well.” Pérez showed his satisfaction with the modernization that is now occurring in the air transport of patients and described this public investment by the Autonomous Community of the Canary Islands as “a very important advance, which will be followed by others.”

 

Between islands and with the Peninsula

 

The main aircraft, a Beechcraft King Air B 200 GT turboprop model, will carry out urgent flights between islands and with the Peninsula. In addition, for the scheduled patient transfer flights to the Peninsula, which represent 80 percent, the successful bidder incorporates into the service a Cessna Citation 550 B jet aircraft, an aircraft that presents greater comfort for working with critical patients and that allows shortening the half the travel time.

 

The service coverage will be 365 days per year and its main base will be at the Gran Canaria airport. The contracting of this service includes the aircraft, its maintenance, its equipment and the aeronautical crew, made up of two pilots. The healthcare team for advanced life support care in flight will be made up of a doctor and nurse from the Canary Islands Emergency Service (SUC), hired by the public company GSC.

 

Turboprop aircraft characteristics

 

Its technical characteristics include aeronautical equipment for the twin-engine turboprop aircraft, flight range without refueling of a minimum of 3.000 km, capacity to carry two patients on their corresponding stretchers and one seated patient, in addition to the crew and medical equipment, as well as harness for different ages and for incubator, among other advantages.

 

Regarding health equipment, all electromedical devices must be newly acquired and have a maintenance contract and replacement equipment, in addition to respiratory and oxygen therapy, immobilization and circulatory equipment. In addition, the plane must have communications and information technology equipment, such as tablets, printer, telephone terminal, TETRA radio, etc., compatible with the applications provided by the public company.

 

Medicalized air resources

 

The Ministry of Health has three medicalized air resources, two helicopters and one plane. These offer in-flight healthcare services to patients who need advanced life support assistance during their transfer. In addition, the successful bidder incorporates, as an improvement to the service, a Cessna Citation 550 B model jet aircraft for scheduled flights with transfers of patients to the Peninsula without the need to refuel. In this way, the availability of a reserve aircraft is met, especially in cases of inoperability due to breakdown, maintenance or similar situation.

 

This contract completes the renewal of the network of resources available to the Canary Islands Emergency Service, which recently replaced the fleet of ambulances, increasing the number of resources, improving the equipment of the vehicles and incorporating new technology, both in terms of to medical supplies and communications.

 

730 transfers

 

In 2021, the Canary Islands Emergency Service carried out 730 patient transfers, 695 between islands and 35 to or from hospitals on the Peninsula. In the first half of 2022, 383 have been carried out, 13 of them originating from or destined for national reference hospitals on the Peninsula, mainly Madrid, Barcelona, ​​Toledo and Seville.