Ukraine to Reinstate Aeromedical Evacuation of Patients Using State Emergency Service Aircraft – Government Approves Procedure
The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine has approved the procedure for conducting aeromedical evacuation of patients using aircraft operated by the State Emergency Service of Ukraine (SESU). The document sets out the arrangements for organising and coordinating such transfers, including the evacuation of patients requiring emergency specialised medical care, as well as the transportation of donor organs.
Aeromedical evacuation will enable patients to be transported between healthcare facilities when ground transportation would take too long, is difficult to arrange or could pose a risk to their health. The procedure also covers the transportation of patients abroad for medical treatment.
“Resuming aeromedical evacuation will help save the most precious resource in the fight for the lives of critically ill patients – time. It will significantly reduce patient transportation times. For example, transporting patients from Kharkiv or Vinnytsia to the hub in Rzeszów can currently take at least 12 hours, while aeromedical evacuation will make it possible to cover the same route in just 2–3 hours. The mechanism is expected to become operational before the end of the year. Importantly, aircraft will be able to cross the state border and transport patients directly to the evacuation hub. This is particularly important for Ukrainians injured as a result of the war who are accepted for treatment by European countries under the Medevac Ukraine programme.”
The transportation of donor organs intended for transplantation is also specifically regulated. Under the procedure, SESU aircraft may be used when ground transportation of a donor heart takes more than 2 hours, or transportation of a liver or lungs takes more than 5 hours. The procedure also provides for the transportation of medical teams responsible for retrieving human anatomical materials, along with the necessary medical equipment.
The procedure sets out how aeromedical evacuation is to be initiated, how decisions on its implementation are to be made, how routes are to be approved and how medical care and supervision during transportation are to be organised. The Ukrainian Scientific and Practical Centre for Emergency Medical Care and Disaster Medicine of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine will coordinate cooperation between healthcare facilities, SESU and other stakeholders.
SESU is responsible for providing the aircraft and crew and assessing the technical feasibility of each flight, taking into account security and weather conditions.
The resolution will remain in force until martial law is terminated or lifted and for six months thereafter.
The resumption of aeromedical patient transportation will strengthen the targeted medical evacuation mechanism introduced earlier. This mechanism provides for the direct transportation of Ukrainians injured as a result of the war to specialised healthcare facilities equipped with the necessary resources and staffed by specialists capable of providing specialised medical care, bypassing unnecessary intermediate stages. Since the mechanism was introduced, more than 3,700 targeted medical evacuations have been carried out.