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Innovation and collaboration With protecting our crew and patients of paramount importance, back in aarch we took the diþ cult decision to temporarily ground our helicopters - but our operations teams worked tirelessly with other organisations to get us back in the air as quickly as possible
&Challenges Collaboration
The worldwide Coronavirus pandemic temporarily grounded Devon Air Ambulance’s helicopters but innovation, co-operation, collaboration and hard work soon got us back fl ying againú
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As with nearly all aspects of our personal, work and social lives, the Coronavirus pandemic created unprecedented challenges for air ambulances around the UK as they wrestled with how to operate their helicopters at the same time as keeping aircrew and patients safe from the virus.
With the safety of patients and staff of paramount importance to Devon Air Ambulance, the painful and difficult decision was taken by the senior leadership team to suspend flight operations at the end of March. There were many complex factors which resulted in this decision being made. One of the major considerations was the limited space inside our EC135 helicopter, which would have made it impossible to keep the crew protected from the virus if one of their patients was poorly with it, or for a member of crew – who may have been asymptomatic - passing it onto their patient and each other. While it quite quickly became apparent that our clinical staff would need to wear appropriate PPE when dealing with patients, this threw up its own unique challenges. Verbal communication between clinicians and the pilot is paramount in terms of safety, so how would they speak to each other, and to colleagues on the ground, if they were wearing protective face masks?
Everyone at Devon Air Ambulance is passionate about the critical care that is provided to our patients, so it was a worrying
Paramedic training in full PPE inside the ĵodiĀ ed helicopter
and frustrating time for our crew as they were not able to help patients who needed them most. However, never failing to rise to the challenge, our clinical staff worked alongside their flight operations and safety colleagues to come up with a plan on what would need to be implemented to protect everyone working in the aircraft and while treating patients on scene.
The team quickly identified three modifications that would be needed in order to return to normal flight operations. Firstly, a separation screen in the aircraft to partition the pilot from the rear of the helicopter where the clinical staff would be treating the patient. Secondly, a throat microphone which could be worn in conjunction with a protective face mask and, lastly, the development of a bracket which would enable a full-face visor to be fitted to an aviation safety helmet.
Each of these new developments involved an incredible amount of work, from the prototype designs and development, implementation and approval from EU and UK aviation authorities, not to mention the need for in-flight trials, testing and simulation as part of our rigorous safety process.
The new separation screen was installed between the front and rear sections of the helicopter, which allowed the pilot cockpit at the front and the patient area at the rear to be partitioned off. The new screen is designed to fit securely around the inside of the aircraft frame, creating a sealed area which reduces the risk of transmission between these two areas of the helicopter.
The aircrew were also able to use the newly designed throat microphone when they needed to wear Level 3 PPE respirator
aodiĀed flight safetƼ helĵet, visor and coĵĵunications eŧuipĵent
masks in-flight, which was critical in improving internal and external communications – vital for flight safety – and a new bracket was designed to fit on their aviation safety helmets so that a full-face visor could be worn when carrying out medical procedures where there was a greater risk of transmitting the virus, such as giving CPR or ventilating a patient who had stopped breathing.
As well as the work of our operational staff, this amazing feat would not have been achieved without the collaboration between Devon Air Ambulance and Babcock Marine at
Plymouth Devonport Dockyard, Babcock Mission Critical
Services Onshore in Gloucester, Headset Services Ltd and Airbus Helicopters UK.
It is a huge testament to the commitment of all involved that these new protective measures were achieved so quickly. Under normal circumstances, the timeframe to achieve this might have been months but, in just about 40 days, the crew at Devon Air Ambulance were back in the skies.
On this tremendous achievement, Flight Operations Director Ian Payne said “These new modifications have been rapidly developed in collaboration with industry partners and approved for use by UK/EU aviation authorities, which demonstrates how we are all working innovatively together during these difficult times”.
Operations Director Nigel Hare added “It has been great news for Devon that we were able to complete a phased reintroduction of our air operations. This measured approach was important as our clinicians restarted some of the more advanced medical treatments while operating with these new aircraft modifications and getting used to wearing PPE in-flight to safeguard themselves and their patients from Coronavirus”.
During the time our helicopters were non-operational, our paramedics were still responding to patients using our Critical Care Cars and you can read more about the benefits of having the cars available during this challenging time on page 16.
There are still some challenges for the crew to overcome. Wearing full PPE including a plastic apron, sleeve and trouser protectors, surgical masks, plastic visors and gloves can be extremely uncomfortable, particularly during the hot weather the rest of us have been enjoying this year Despite these challenges, our operational crew were delighted to be back flying again and continuing to provide critical and advanced emergency care to their patients across Devon.
