Sarajevo Canton Interior Minister Admir Katica and Health Minister Enis Hasanović held a working meeting attended by the director of the Sarajevo Canton Institute for Emergency Medical Services, Dr Jasna Husejnbegović Musić, during which they discussed models for using the Sarajevo Canton Ministry of Interior helicopter for emergency medical services with the aim of saving human lives.
The multipurpose helicopter of the Sarajevo Canton Ministry of Interior, which is expected to arrive this spring, is highly reliable in extreme conditions, while its cabin is spacious and equipped for both medical staff and patients. The helicopter was manufactured by the U.S. company Bell, whose aircraft have been used in the air medical transport industry for decades. When speed and time are crucial, Bell helicopters can reach high speeds that allow medical crews in the air to respond within the “golden hour” and maximize patient survival.
“Last month we had the opportunity to attend a presentation of several modules of this helicopter, one of which is intended for medical transport, which is extremely important for us. The helicopter has class-leading dual sliding doors that allow easy entry and exit for patients from both sides simultaneously. It has a very flexible seating configuration and can transport four medical workers and two critically ill patients, or up to six patients in the case of mass evacuation. This means the cabin can accommodate six stretchers with patients,” Minister Katica explained.
He added that global practice is for the basic configuration of this type of helicopter to be medical, with other configurations applied depending on operational needs, and that the same approach will be used with the Sarajevo helicopter because human lives must come first.
Minister Hasanović expressed satisfaction with the announced cooperation and the fact that the helicopter will also serve this purpose. “In emergency medicine, minutes save lives, and capacities such as this enable the healthcare system to respond when it matters most – in the first and decisive moments of the fight for a patient’s life,” Hasanović said.
“Establishing a Helicopter Emergency Medical Service (HEMS) in Sarajevo Canton represents a strategic step forward in the development of an integrated emergency medical system, while the procurement of the helicopter is a key operational and infrastructural prerequisite for implementing this concept. For the first time in Sarajevo Canton, this will establish a functional model of air medical evacuation and transport based on modern European standards of pre-hospital healthcare,” Hasanović added.
Dr Husejnbegović Musić said that, from the perspective of the Sarajevo Canton Institute for Emergency Medical Services, integrating an air component into the emergency response system has exceptional medical and public health value. “The operational use of the helicopter will allow us to significantly optimize medical intervention times, particularly in situations of high urgency, complex trauma, inaccessible terrain, or the need for inter-hospital transport of critically ill patients,” she said.
The Sarajevo Canton Ministry of Interior and the Institute for Emergency Medical Services have already begun activities to define cooperation protocols, while meetings will also be held with the management of the Clinical Center of the University of Sarajevo (KCUS) to discuss the possibility of using the helicopter for patient transfers, organ transport, and particularly the use of the KCUS heliodrome.
