The air ambulance to be introduced tomorrow will be able to fly direct to Sri Lanka and India, Health Minister Abdulla Khaleel said today.
Introducing an air ambulance service in the Maldives was a pledge of President Dr. Mohamed Muizzu, who said previously that a Dash-8 plane would be retrofitted as an ambulance to carry patients to Thailand.
Briefing the press about the service due to begin tomorrow, the Health Minister said the air ambulance would be able to fly directly to two countries. But it would be able to fly to Thailand after transiting in another country, he added.
"Now it can go in one flight to India and Sri Lanka. It is India and Sri Lanka that patients from the Maldives usually go to as well. However, considering the range of this boat, it has the ability to go as far as Thailand after a stop," Minister Khaleel said.
Despite the transit, the flight would not take a long time, the minister said.
The Maldives government has obtained a special permit from Sri Lanka to operate the air ambulance. Arrangements have been made for Sri Lanka to approve requests within two hours, Khaleel said. Efforts are underway to establish similar agreements with other countries, he said.
The minister also revealed that the air ambulance service is due to begin with a land craft and a sea craft. The government decided to use a seaplane to airlift patients from islands that do not have an airport or lie too far from one, he said.
Equipping the interior of the air ambulance to provide the necessary services will be completed by the end of the day, Khaleel said. The training of five doctors, five nurses and five technicians specially recruited for the service would also be completed today, he said.
"In the future, it is likely that these numbers [of special health service providers for air ambulances] would have to be increased based on demand. To start with, 15 staff have been hired for this," Khaleel said.
Detailing services available on the air ambulances, the minister said all emergency services would be available, including oxygen, ventilator, injections and equipment to use in cases of cardiac arrest.
A 38-seat airplane has been retrofitted as an air ambulance with the capacity for two patients at a time for now, Khaleel said. The plane has space to add more stretchers if needed based on demand, he said.
"The sea ambulance with its space can only carry one patient," the minister said.
Asked for the cost of retrofitting the plane as an air ambulance, the minister said all the expenses were covered by Island Aviation. However, as the cost of operating the air ambulance would be borne by the state budget, the ministry was working on setting prices and signing an agreement with Island Aviation, Khaleel said.
