Ambulance helicopters for every emergency?

Abstract

Physician-staffed Helicopter Emergency Medical Services (HEMS) have been introduced in many countries during the last decade, based on the belief that speed of transportation and/or advanced care on scene and during transportation will benefit the most sick or severely injured patients. A recent systematic review could, however, not establish any evidence that these services had an impact on patient outcomes1 . It seems obvious that a scarce and expensive resource needs strict dispatch criteria, but unfortunately evidence-based dispatch criteria do not exist.