10 Feb :With an expectancy of a very large turnout at the Aero India-09 that gets underway tomorrow, the IAF together with the State Disaster Management Agency has put together an elaborate medicare plan operational that will take care of all onsite medical challenges.
A modified AN-32 fitted with 24 stretchers, two Mi-8 helicopters with 12 stretchers and one ALH Dhruv fitted with two stretchers will remain on ‘hot standby’ for ‘search and rescue’ and casualty evacuation roles during all aerial displays. Wing Commander Sreekanth Reddy, Captain of the AN-32 informed, ‘It would only take under 11-minutes to fly down to the HAL airfield to evacuate casualties if need be. This will save precious travel time avoiding the traffic snarls that are bound to be there’. The aircraft in the air-ambulance configuration is fitted with onboard integrated-oxygen system. The casualties onboard will be managed by a team comprising a doctor and four medical assistants.
Apart from reserving 10 percent of the beds in the Command Hospital, Medical Aid Posts (MAP) have been erected at the air display viewing area and other venues. With 24 hospitals standing by, four civil medical teams, 18 ambulances, 30 hospital beds at the MAP, 24 doctors, 96 paramedical staff and 36 stretcher boys, the medical action plan is fully operational informed Wing Commander Indranil Chakraborty, an Aerospace medicine specialist in charge of the MAP at the Aero India venue, Yelahanka.