Air ambulance usage (FOI)

Request

A

The amount of times a patient was airlifted from Jersey to the UK by The Channel Islands air ambulance service (run by Capital Air Ambulance) broken down by years, 2016, 2015 and 2014

B

Where possible can I get the reasons why someone was airlifted

C

How many times in 2014, 2015 and 2016 was there a request for someone to be airlifted but it didn’t happen. And what were the reasons

Response

A

Number of times patients have been airlifted:

B

The conditions for which the patient needed an air ambulance are as listed below. Conditions that have triggered only single figures have been either marked as <10 or placed in ‘Other’ in order not to identify patients. In addition, the differential in Capital flight numbers to the numbers listed below are because other providers such as insurance retrievals and helicopter transfers form part of the total number of flights.

Due to the small numbers of individuals cited in the figures above, Article 25 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 has been applied to this request.

C

Flight transfers are normally carried out as per request. One case in 2014 resulted in an aborted flight, as the patient deteriorated and died prior to transfer off island.

There are occasions where adverse weather conditions or fluctuations in the patient’s condition may cause delays, but unless this has had significant clinical impact to the patient, detailed information is not recorded.

Exemption applied

Article 25 Personal information

(1) Information is absolutely exempt information if it constitutes personal data of which the applicant is the data subject as defined in the Data Protection (Jersey) Law 2005.

(2) Information is absolutely exempt information if –

(a) it constitutes personal data of which the applicant is not the data subject as defined in the Data Protection (Jersey) Law 2005; and

(b) its supply to a member of the public would contravene any of the data protection principles, as defined in that Law.