The Danish Government and the Danish People’s Party have now reached a political agreement on the location of the new fourth emergency medical helicopter. It will be based at Saltum in the northern part of the Municipality of Jammerbugt.

Read the press release from the Ministry of Health:
‘New Northern Jutland emergency medical helicopter will be based in the Municipality of Jammerbugt.’

The actual text of the agreement on the location of the fourth emergency medical helicopter is attached to the press release.

Specialist recommendation

Based on a specialist analysis, Danish Regions, which operates Danish Air Ambulance, has recommended a location more centrally in the Municipality of Jammerbugt, combined with a relocation of the two existing bases in Jutland (Skive and Billund). See press release about this:

http://www.regioner.dk/services/nyheder/2018/maj/nye-baser-til-laegehelikoptere-kan-sikre-patienter-hurtigere-akut-hjaelp (in Danish)

See the specialist analysis:

‘Effective national HEMS coverage with 4 emergency response units – Analysis and specialist recommendations’ (pdf)

Danish Regions on the decision

Danish Regions has commented on the agreement in the press release:
‘New emergency medical helicopter in Northern Jutland should be better located’.

Basis of the agreement

  • In the Finance Act for 2018, the Danish Government and the Danish People’s Party allocated funds to strengthen the emergency response in areas for which there are relatively long response times with the current emergency medical helicopters.
  • The parties allocated DKK 45 million a year from 2019 and onwards to establish and operate a new emergency medical helicopter based in the northern part of Denmark.
  • The new emergency medical helicopter is expected to become operational from 1 January 2019. It will have a temporary base at Aalborg Airport, until the new base in the Municipality of Jammerbugt has been established.
  • The parties behind the Finance Act Agreement for 2018 agree to await the experience with the fourth emergency medical helicopter and look at the overall emergency medical helicopter coverage of Denmark before a decision is made on a possible relocation of the current bases.
  • Danish Air Ambulance is operated jointly by the regions.
  • It currently consists of three helicopters with bases in Skive, Billund and Ringsted, which are sent to patients throughout Denmark.
  • The current three emergency medical helicopters took off on missions more than 3,500 times in 2017.
  • More than every third flight is to a patient with cardiovascular disease symptoms. Other large groups are patients with blood clot or brain haemorrhage symptoms and patients with severe injuries, for example after major traffic accidents.

Source: The Ministry of Health and the Secretariat for Danish Air Ambulance