Medical specialists demonstrate the loading of a patient onto the emergency helicopter.

OFFICIALS from the Bangkok Helicopter Services Company are currently negotiating to get a landing permit in Myanmar for its new international helicopter emergency medical service, the first of its kind in Southeast Asia, said Captain Puttipong Prasartthong-osoth, the managing director of the company.

He said the company hoped the helicopter service, which was launched on November 14 at a ceremony at Bangkok Hospital, would be used to facilitate the quick evacuation of emergency patients to Thailand from Laos, Myanmar and Cambodia.

The service will be provided using a 250 million baht twin-engine Eurocopter helicopter, which can fly at 268 kilometres an hour and has a range of 680 kilometres.

The helicopter is equipped with emergency supplies including extra oxygen, ventilators and heart defibrillators and will be crewed by two pilots, a nurse and a doctor during emergency flights.

Patients who wish to use the service must submit medical documents to Bangkok Hospital’s Myanmar branch, which will then contact Bangkok Hospital in Thailand.

Officials there will notify aviation personnel in Myanmar. Once landing permission is granted, the helicopter will fly to Yangon International Airport to pick up the patient.

Capt Puttipong said the helicopter will leave Bangkok to retrieve the patient within 30 minutes of receiving the phone call. Flying charges for the service will be B120,000 an hour.

Mr Ralf Krewer, the international marketing manager of Bangkok International Hospital, which is part of the Bangkok Hospital Medical Centre group, said he expects Myanmar to be the main customer of the service if landing permits are gained for all three countries.

He said more than 4000 patients from Myanmar have visited Bangkok Hospital since the start of 2007.

The Bangkok Hospital Medical Centre includes four hospitals: Bangkok Hospital, Bangkok Heart Hospital, Wattanosoth Hospital and Bangkok International Hospital.