Watch: After a 21-year wait, helicopters land again at CUH
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The first patient flights in more than 20 years could be landing at Cork University Hospital (CUH) before the end of this week as test flights got underway on its new helipad on Monday.
The HSE and National Ambulance Service air ambulance, Aero Med 01, with Captain Gerry Morgan and co-pilot Adrian Kenny at the controls, touched down on the new helipad just after 10am with Helicopter Emergency Medical Service (HEMS) paramedics Peter Delea and Stephen Galvin on board the EC135 aircraft.
Based at Rathcoole, near Millstreet, Co Cork, AeroMed01 has brought between 120 to 130 patients to CUH annually from emergency medical incidents across its operational range which stretches from Dingle to Dungarvan, and north to Thurles.
When transferring patients to CUH — one of just two level-one trauma centres in the country — it and other medevac aircraft have had to land on sports pitches close to the hospital, with patients being transferred by ambulance.
However, on Monday, thanks to the construction of the long-awaited helipad, it became the first helicopter to land at the busy hospital since its original helipad was decommissioned in 2003. It was followed later by the Irish Air Corps AW139 helicopter.
On Tuesday morning, one of the Irish Coast Guard’s S92 aircraft, part of a fleet due to be phased out and replaced by AW189 aircraft in the coming year, is due to land on the helipad.
The test flights are designed to test the hospital’s operational response to accepting patient flights, in association with the National Ambulance Service and Cork City Fire Brigade.
They will also examine the approach flightpath, the various safety procedures prior to the approach, during landing, and at take-off, and the safe transfer of patients to the hospital’s emergency department.
The helipad will support all emergency pathways, including children, critical care, stroke, heart attack, maternity, and major trauma.
CUH chief executive David Donegan, who was on hand to welcome the pilots and crews, said the new helipad will be directly connected to the hospital over the next three to six months via a covered link bridge, with construction and installation about to begin.
Until then, patients arriving by air will be transferred by ambulance the short distance to the A&E, or to another unit on campus.
“The helipad on the hospital campus is a major improvement in access to and from CUH, with patients now being able to receive their life saving care within 10 minutes of landing, dramatically reducing the times it currently takes when the helicopters need to land either at local GAA grounds or at Cork Airport,” Mr Donegan said.
“CUH is Ireland’s only Model 4 specialist hospital, with every surgical and medical speciality co-located on one campus, and capable of caring for every age group.”
CUH has been without a helipad since 2003, when its original pad was decommissioned to make way for a new emergency department.
Construction of a landing pad on the roof of that new building was ruled out at the time on budgetary, aviation, and engineering grounds.
Since then, helicopters have been landing on nearby sports pitches.
There have been several missed target dates over the years for the delivery of a replacement landing pad.
The new helipad was granted conditional planning in July 2019 and was delayed by covid but got back on track last year, and has been built on the site of a former staff car park in the north eastern area of the campus.