The Health Service Executive should establish a National Aeromedical Co-ordination Centre within the National Ambulance Service, with the support of the Air Corps and Irish Coast Guard, within the next two months.
The executive should establish a National Aeromedical Co-ordination Group.
* The group should be comprised of the main agencies and providers involved in patient transportation by air for transplant surgery and emergency patient episodes, and include a service-user representative.
The group should meet within the next four weeks and should, as a minimum, meet every two months for the first year, and develop, audit and monitor a series of key performance indicators for the provision of air and land logistics for patients.
* The executive should establish a “live” information management system which details the availability of each State aircraft, including helicopters, at any one point in time, with detailed classification information available for the National Aeromedical Co-ordination Centre regarding the travel times, refuelling requirements, capacities and ranges of each of the State assets and of changes in the status of availability of each.
* A checklist should be developed by all the agencies involved in the transfer and transport process to ensure that the possibility of errors at critical points are reduced or prevented.