Medical emergency flights in remote areas: experience in Milne Bay Province, Papua new Guinea
Barss, P.; Blackford, C.
Papua and new Guinea Medical Journal 26(3-4): 198-202
1983
ISSN/ISBN: 0031-1480 PMID: 6595889 Document Number: 210809
Light aircraft can be valuable for transfer of emergency patients from remote island health centres to a central hospital. A two-year experience of 92 such flights in Milne Bay Province, Papua New Guinea was reviewed. 50% of air charter evacuations were for obstetric or gynaecological patients, 35% for surgical, and 15% for medical cases. 63 of the patients might have died and another nine might have been left with a serious disability without the emergency air transfer. The average cost per life saved was approximately Kina 461 (360 pounds; US$520) and the average cost of providing the emergency service per head of population per year was about Kina 0.10 (0.08 pounds; US$0.12).