Ordering and getting an ambulance helicopter is not currently done by hand, but this is how it works:

First, the on-site ambulance staff makes an assessment of whether assistance is needed out of the helicopter. Then the ambulance staff, SOS Alarm Halmstad, who in turn contacts the ambulance manager in readiness, who then contacts SOS Alarm Halmstad, who then calls the home coordinator for the helicopter, and asks if they have the opportunity to go.

Instead, the ambulance staff in Kungsbacka wants SOS Alarm Gothenburg to act as they had done in their own county and made the assessment themselves, already at the first call.

- At times when we do not have the resources to care for the affected, it should not matter if you happen to be in Västra Götaland or Halland. The county breakdown is only a dash on the map. You should have the right to equal care when you are seriously injured or ill, says Jens Olhammer, ambulance nurse in Kungsbacka.

Difference in resources

The helicopter is manned by anesthesiologist, a completely different drug arsenal than a road ambulance and takes different types of equipment to the accident site.

- We as an ambulance in Halland have a lot of expertise, but there are times when the ambulance helicopter had made use of. During the spring and summer there have been a lot of serious incidents involving both shootings and traffic accidents. In some cases, the patient probably would have benefited from the resources that the ambulance helicopter could have helped us on site, says Jens Olhammer.

A cost issue

Each time the ambulance helicopter spins over to Halland, it costs SEK 58,000 per hour. Which, Jens, considers to be an expensive point effort from a socio-economic perspective.

- But if you can save someone from a life-long suffering or a life-long disability and need for care. Then it's probably going to be cheaper in the long run, says Jens.

"We see a relatively small need today"

Earlier this year, the collaboration with the ambulance helicopter was up in the Health and Medical Committee in Region Halland. Then they realized that the need was not there.

- I think there has probably been a discussion at a level that did not include us as employees and who sees the need to create better resources. I think that's where there is a shortage in that information chain, ”says Jens Olhammer.

In the clip above, ambulance nurse Jens Olhammer talks about a first solution.