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Casualty evacuation

Casualty evacuation / Helicopter at scene of incident

The original Thames Valley Police Air Support Unit pioneered the evacuation of people who are seriously injured to hospital in the Thames Valley area with an established protocol in conjunction with the ambulance service.

For over a decade from 1988, this was the only way someone could be air-lifted to hospital locally. This was expanded to Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire once the Chiltern Air Support Unit was formed in 1996. The main requirement for this service is in relation to road crashes, air crashes and persons seriously injured in remote locations.

There are now air ambulances that operate during daylight hours. However, both police helicopters of the Chiltern Air Support Unit still provide this service complementing the air ambulance during daylight hours and, crucially, still providing the only casualty air transportation during the hours of darkness. Police helicopters can land at incident scenes at night for life-saving purposes under the auspices of the Police Air Operator Certificate where others can’t.

The aircraft are equipped with stretcher installation, trauma packs and defibrillators and generally will carry a paramedic from the incident scene to the receiving hospital to supervise the casualty.

Over the years that the Thames Valley Police and, subsequently, the Chiltern Air Support Unit have operated helicopters, many hundreds of 'casevacs' have been carried out by the unit. There is no doubt that a significant proportion of those people transported by the helicopter are alive today solely because it was used.