Northland Rescue Helicopter

The Northland Rescue Helicopter is based close to Whangarei on Western Hills Drive.

They provide a Helicopter medical service for Northland and have been doing so since 1988.

They merged with the Auckland team to form Northern Rescue Helicopters Ltd (NRHL) in 2021.

At Whangarei ICU we provide the team with both advice regarding the transfer of patients, as well as specialist medical staff. All requests for areomedical transfer are made through the ICU Consultant on call, they will then decide if the request is an appropriate use of the helicopter and if so the level of medical support the transfer requires.

The medical support provided can range from a doctor and flight nurse,  a flight nurse and paramedic, to a paramedic only transfer. Depending on the clinical situation.

The ICU RMOs provide medical flight cover for the majority of transfer requests and the ICU Nursing staff provide the Nursing cover.

Transferring patients via helicopter can be for a variety of reasons:

• Time critical transfer to Tertiary centers (such as Primary Coronary Angioplasty)
• Transfer of unstable patients from peripheral Hospitals to the Regional Centre (Whangarei base Hospital)
• Transfer for specialist pediatric services (such as PICU)

All ICU RMOs who will be undertaking duties involving helicopter transfer will receive a full induction and training before being asked to fly.