Nadat het in november 2020 twee contracten afsloot voor helikopterdiensten rond windmolenparken in de Noordzee heeft het Duitse Wiking Helikopter Service op 2 maart haar contract verlengd met het Deense Ørsted voor medische helikopterdiensten voor een ganse reeks windmolenparken.
Wiking zal HEMS (Helicopter Emergency Medical Services) verlenen voor de windmolenparken Borkum Riffgrund 1 en 2, Gode Wind 1 en 2 en zal deze diensten ook verlenen voor de geplande windmolenparken Borkun Riffgrund 3 en Gode Wind 3.
De Borkum Riffgrund 1 en 2 windmolenparken zijn gelegen op 57 km van de noordwestkust van Duitsland. De windmolenparken Gode Wind 1 en 2 zijn gelegen op 45 km voor de kust van Nedersaksen.
Wiking zal deze diensten organiseren vanop haar Duitse basissen in Emden en Wilhelmshaven. Voor deze helikopterdiensten aan windmolenparken worden Airbus H145 en Leonardo AW139 helikopters ingezet.
Hoe wordt een urgentie medische zorg voor windmolenparken georganiseerd?
WIKING works in cooperation with Offshore Response Safety GmbH (ORS) to provide emergency medical assistance to employees based at offshore wind farms.
For this purpose WIKING always has an helicopter and crew on stand-by. ORS provides the medical personnel and their medical equipment. This service is available 24 hours a day and 365 days a year.
When the alarm is raised, the helicopter flies to the incident site with a crew consisting of an emergency doctor, a paramedic, two pilots and a hoist operator. Once the helicopter has landed on the ship, the med crew are dispatched, together with their rescue equipment. This is performed by landing on the platform or on a ship with a helideck. If it is impossible to land, the personnel and equipment are transferred by hoist.
The doctor makes an initial diagnosis and decides on what further procedures and steps are required. As soon as the patient is stable enough to be transported, the helicopter will depart to the nearest suitable medical facility. If the patient has to be transported lying down, they are brought on board the helicopter in an air rescue bag. While the medical crew continue to monitor and treat the incident victim, they are flown to the clinic best suited to treat the medical condition or type of injury in question.
Patient care is delivered in the context of the particular mission profiles involved and in accordance with established standards of emergency medicine and of air rescue in Germany. Given the special nature of the task, dedicated procedures and medical care delivery methods have been developed to reflect the demands of operational situations frequently encountered. Operators of offshore wind farms can therefore call on a comprehensive emergency care service, staffed by highly-qualified personnel, based on years of experience in the offshore wind industry.
The helicopter alerting service is carried out and coordinated by the ORS and Gesellschaft für Maritimes Notfallmanagement mbH (GMN) a subsidiary of the Deutsche Gesellschaft zur Rettung Schiffbrüchiger (DGzRS) and the Maritime Rescue Co-ordination Centres (MRCC). In view of GMN's / DGzRS years of experience in coordinating rescue missions for maritime emergencies, WIKING regards them as one of the most experienced authorities capable of undertaking such coordination tasks.