Choppers can land in Lerwick again
SHETLAND’s new helicopter emergency landing site at the Clickimin Leisure Complex was officially opened during a short ceremony on Wednesday morning.
The £85,000 landing site replaces the old facility nearby which was lost to the community five years ago, when it became part of the new running track developed for the international island games, held in 2005.
Since then casualties airlifted to Lerwick’s Gilbert Bain Hospital had either been taken to the Tingwall landing strip seven miles away, or to Sumburgh airport 25 miles away.
Speaking after the ribbon was cut by Anna Glowacka, an under graduate placement with the council’s emergency planning services, NHS Shetland chairman Ian Kinniburgh said the landing site would help save lives.
“Having a permanent facility close to the hospital where the helicopter can safely land means that we now know that we will get patients to treatment in the shortest possible time.
“This means that it will be saving lives and improving the outcome for folk that need this emergency service,” he said.
Following the introduction of the new Sikorsky 92 helicopters in 2008, the Shetland Emergency Planning Forum had to find a new location that could cope with the new helicopter’s much heavier airframe.
In addition the new landing site needed trolley and vehicle access to the aircraft.
The isles’ chief emergency planning officer John Taylor said that a new landing site would have needed whether the old one had been lost or not.
“The facility was old and was getting past its sell by date. It was only able to take the old Sikorsky 61, so the search was on to find a suitable site to replace the helicopter landing site.”
The site was paid for jointly by the Scottish government, NHS Shetland, the Scottish Ambulance Service and Shetland Islands Council.
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