Air transport by the Wellington Flight Service: a descriptive analysis of interhospital transfers over a 5-year period in the Wellington region of New Zealand.

Aim: To describe and characterise the interhospital transport workload of a New Zealand based flight service over a 5-year period.

Method: Wellington Flight Service database records from 1 November 2005 to 31 October 2010 were reviewed. Details of mission purpose, timings, transport type, severity of illness, clinical service requesting the transfer, and medical crew in attendance, were examined.

Results: The Flight Service completed 4046 transport missions over 5 years. The median mission duration was 4.5 hours, but 9% of missions took 8 hours or more. Fixed wing aircraft were used for most transports (70%) with the trend for helicopter use decreasing steadily (from 23% down to 13%). High proportions of transfers were requested by cardiac services (25%), neurosurgery (14%) and ICU (9%), and 72% of those transported were critically (Category A) or seriously ill (Category B). A doctor accompanied a specialist flight nurse for Category A transports but for only 14% of Category B transports. 26% of missions began after 4pm and a further 6% began after midnight. Missions undertaken during the night were usually transfers of the critically or seriously ill (90%), with most (70%) being retrieved to Wellington Hospital for tertiary care.

Conclusion: The Wellington Flight Service undertakes 2.2 interhospital transfers per day. Further examination of clinical outcomes in this cohort of patients transported to tertiary care is required to fully evaluate these services.