Founders of air ambulance grounded as contract awarded to Malta-based firm

Officially launching Critical, the emergency medical response charity, are Dr Lisa Cunningham, board member; Micheál Sheridan, chief executive; and Dr Jason Horan, volunteer emergency medical responder. Picture: Michael Mc Laughlin

The charity which launched Ireland’s first community-funded air ambulance has moved to reassure people the life-saving service will continue to fly, but under new operators and will be fully State-funded, from the end of the month.

Irish Community Air Ambulance (ICAA) gave the commitment on Thursday after it emerged that despite its track record, it was unsuccessful in its joint bid with Sloane Helicopters for the HSE tender to provide a fully-State-funded helicopter emergency medical service (Hems) in the South-West.

ICAA, which launched the air ambulance service in 2019, and which has been tasked by the National Ambulance Service to more than 1,500 serious incidents and emergencies since, lost out in the tender to Gulf Med Aviation Services Ltd, headquartered in Malta.

ICAA will continue to provide the HEMS service from its base in Rathcoole, near Millstreet, Cork, until February 28, at which point Gulf Med will take over.

It is understood the estimated €1m annual contract runs for an initial period of two years. Gulf Med will also operate from the Rathcoole air base.

ICAA said it now planned to change its name to 'Critical', and to focus on expanding its network of ground-based volunteer emergency medical responders countrywide.

Critical’s chief executive Micheál Sheridan said they set up ICAA in response to what they knew was a need for an air ambulance service service in the South-West and were gutted not to win the contract. But he wished the new operators well.

“We have consistently shown how vital the service is, so much so that it is now set to be fully funded by the State,” he said.

“We would like to thank all of those who helped keep HeliMed92 flying for the past three years and the HSE for its support over the last 10 months.

We will now focus our efforts on our ground-based volunteer emergency medical response initiative and bring critical and advanced levels of care to more communities across Ireland, both rural and urban.” 

National Ambulance Service director Robert Morton praised the ICAA and their volunteers and fundraisers for their commitment to the HEMS since 2019.

“Like many charities, Covid had an impact on its ability to fundraise, hence the HSE has helped to fund the operation of the ICAA helicopter since March 2022 and will now operate the Hems in the South-West on a long-term sustainable and publicly-funded basis,” he said.

Critical will now work with the National Ambulance Service and a number of volunteer emergency medicine doctors and medical responders around the country, who are tasked by the the ambulance service to support the provision of pre-hospital emergency care to critically ill and injured patients in the community.

The charity has teams in Mayo, Donegal and Dublin, with additional volunteer doctors set to join them in Kildare, Dublin, Wicklow and Waterford in the coming months.

In 2022, the charity was tasked with 1,000 calls — almost half of which were road traffic collisions and cardiac arrests.