Bengaluru based Aviators, an air-charter company plans to kick start air ambulance services subscription soon., While over ninety one thousand people in the United States were airlifted in medical emergencies last year alone. In India , Medical evacuation in emergencies has remained a rich man’s prerogative in India the prohibitive costs and the lack of infrastructure means that each evacuation leaves the patient poorer by Rs 3 to 10 lacs depending on where the patient is located .

Capt Arun Sharma , Managing Director Aviators feels,” India has over two lac casualties every year on Indian Roads , many on highways. In terms of need and from humanitarian point of view if we can help save even 10 percent of the lives, I feel we would have done a yeoman service. From business point of view , there is a huge market for people demanding such service in the country and we want to move in as first Indian Company” .

On the question of who will subscribe , the Aviators team who have tied up with GVK-EMRI , operators of 108 ambulance services and US based medical rescue company MED-TRANS feel that the services are useful to over 10-15% of the Indian population who can afford it. The subscription format works more like an insurance cover. A person can subscribe for HEMS( Helicopter Emergency Medical Services) by paying an annual fee of Rs 18,000 for an individual or Rs 30,000 for a family of four. In case of any medical emergency, the person will be rescued by air from an accident scene or from hospital to hospital in an emergency.

K Krishnam Raju, President GVK EMRI says “The Golden Hour is critical, our network of ground ambulances 108 are usually the first to reach, and on assessment of the condition of the patient will decide on where can the patient be moved to.” While Heli-Evac (HEMS ), being new in the country may be a challenge, but Raju adds “ We will have to train our staff for the changing scenario”

While initially only the five southern states Karnataka , Kerala, Tamilnadu , AndhraPradesh and Telengana will have the services operational in the next few months, the same may take a while before expanding to the other states. The tie-up with Airbus Copters and Safran will provide the aircrafts. But the bigger challenge will be getting the rules amended by the DGCA. The rules governing helicopter operations in India’s metro cities and the rest of the country are far more stringent than in many other countries and could hamper the effectiveness of the medical evacuation. As presently the DGCA mandates passengers manifests and seeking of landing clearances 24 hours before sortie. “Its impossible to predict anything in this business, we have moved the papers in DGCA seeking requisite amendments. We hope the DGCA will come forward and change some of the rules. On the face of it they sounded positive” said Capt Arun Sharma.