Westpac Rescue Helicopter

Life Flight’s Westpac Rescue Helicopter is a vital component of emergency services. When speed is critical or location remote, a helicopter response can be crucial to a person’s survival.

Fitted with a full rescue and medical kit, the Westpac Rescue Helicopter ensures that an intensive care unit can literally be taken to the scene of an accident or medical emergency.

From the time the Westpac Rescue Helicopter lands on the helipad on the roof of Wellington Hospital, it takes just 90 seconds for the patient - still on full life support - to be transferred to the Emergency Department or Intensive Care Unit.

 Primary Coverage Area

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Many of the missions flown by the Westpac Rescue Helicopter are casualty evacuations. These involve flying someone from the scene of their accident (e.g. car crashes, horse-riding/mountain-biking accidents, lost trampers, boat users or divers) or medical emergency (e.g. heart attack, stroke or asthma attack victims) to the specialist care they require.

Emergency missions flown by the Westpac Rescue Helicopter also regularly include long-distance offshore flights to take ill or injured patients off ships, and inter-hospital transfers, flying patients with burns, spinal injuries and life-threatening medical conditions between hospitals to access specialist medical care.

Fuel costs alone are extremely expensive; this aircraft burns around 300 litres every hour. Life Flight also has specialist skilled crew, pilots and intensive care equipment, all of which is not cheap but absolutely vital. While some of these costs are met by district health boards and ACC, around 40% of costs need to be met by the community.

For every mission flown, Life Flight requires about $2,500 from the community to make it happen.

Life Flight celebrated 25 years of Westpac sponsorship in 2006 and we are grateful for its ongoing support in ensuring the community has an around-the-clock air rescue service. For more information on Westpac and its sponsorship of rescue helicopters, visit www.haveapart.co.nz.