For medical dispatchers

To call the HEMS team (helicopter) authorized are:

• medical dispatcher referred to in Article 26 of the Law on State Emergency Medical Services;
• Polish Medical Air Rescue dispatcher;
• dispatchers of other rescue services (State Fire Service, GOPR, TOPR, WOPR, PRO, IAS) through a medical dispatcher referred to in paragraph 1lit.a) or directly on the basis of signed agreements.

HEMS teams (helicopter) should be called in the following situations:

• time needed for transport by air from the scene/place of call in a state of emergency, to the proper medical facility is shorter than time needed to transport by other means and might be advantageous for further treatment;
• there are circumstances which might prevent or significantly delay others means of rescue to the victim in the state of emergency (eg.: topography)
• mass events (sudden threat, for which the need for medical rescue operations exceeds the capabilities of means present at the scene, and there is a need for segregation understood as setting treatment – transport priotities);
• states of emergency (other than those specified below) requiring urgent care of a medical rescue team;
• unconscious patient;
• sudden cardiac arrest;
• acute cardiological conditions;
• hypertensive crisis;
• stroke;
• traffic accidents;
• fall from a height;
• burying, avalanche;
• polytrauma;
• head injury requiring urgent neurosurgical intervention;
• spinal injury with paraplegia, quadriplegia or symptoms lateralization;
• penetrating trauma to the neck, chest or abdomen;
• two or more fractures of long bones;
• severe pelvic injury;
• traumatic amputation of limbs;
• II° and IIIº burns that cover more than 20% body surface area burns, suspected respiratory burns, electric burns, explosions and fires;
• hypothermia;
• drowning.

There exists a possibility of not completing the rescue mission because of the threats regarding the flight safety, as well as operational and legal limitations

HEMS teams to a medical rescue flights can be dispatched on the following principles:

1. HEMS teams should be called directly from the scene
2. HEMS teams can be called by a phone or radio
3. In the absence of contact with a proper HEMS team, the dispatcher of an authorized rescue service contacts the Polish Medical Air Rescue Operations Center by phone

1. Medical emergency operations (emergency medical services – flights to accidents and sudden illnesses) are carried out FREE OF CHARGE .
2. Activity of the medical air rescue teams is financed from the state budget, from the part at the disposal of the Minister of Health.

Medical rescue activities are carried out by:
 

Helicopter Emergency Medical Services (HEMS), with a readiness to start:

1.  during the day:

• up to 3 minutes – within a radius of 60 km (except for bases where, due to the local restrictions, the Director has made a decision to extend the time needed for readiness to start);
• up to 6 minutes – within a radius of 60 km – from 30 minutes before sunrise to 6:30am, in HEMS bases with 24h operation times;
• up to 6 minutes – within a radius from 60 km to 130 km (except for bases where, due to the local restrictions, the Director has made a decision to extend the time needed for readiness to start);
• 15 minutes – within a radius larger than 130 km.

2. during the night:

• up to 15 minutes – within a radius of 60 km;
• up to 30 minutes – within a radius larger than 60 km.

3. in cases of HEMS flights to accidents in the mountains or carried out in the cooperation with mountain rescue services or with the use of altitute techniques, the flight readiness time might be extended for the time necessary to prepare a helicopter for the mission, but no more than 15 minutes.
4. in cases of HEMS flights carried out in the cooperation with the State Fire Service, the Border Guard, the Police or other services: up to 30 minutes.
5. in cases of HEMS flights with an incubator for transporting newborns and infants: up to 60 minutes.

Plane Transport Team (EMS), with a readiness to start (counted from the moment of receiving a request from the Polish Medical Air Rescue Operations Center dispatcher):

1. during the day and night:

• up to 60 minutes – in case of the first request that day
• up to 30 minutes – in cases of the next requests

Helicopter Transport Team, with a readiness to start (counted from the moment of receiving a request from the Polish Medical Air Rescue Operations Center dispatcher):

1.  during the day: up to 15 minutes.
2.  during the night:

• up to 15 minutes – within a radius of 60 km;
• up to 30 minutes – within a radius larger than 60 km.

1. Mass Casualty Incident – a sudden threat, for which the need for medical rescue operations exceeds the capabilities of means present at the scene, and there is a need for segregation understood as setting treatment – transport priotities;
2. In the cases of mass events, more than one HEMS team can be dispatched. Dispatching HEMS teams from other operating regions is done by reporting to the Polish Medical Air Rescue Operations Center
3. Polish Medical Air Rescue can participate in the organization of transport of a large number of Polish victims in an event abroad back to Poland using the non-Polish Medical Air Rescue means