Guangdong drafts rules to use helicopters for patients

Guangdong province is drafting detailed regulations for using helicopters to rescue patients in critical condition. Emergency officials expect air rescue to become a normal operation in the coming months.

Regulations for the use of helicopters begin to be drafted after the Guangdong provincial people's hospital sent a helicopter to transport a 5-month-old girl, who suffered from congenital heart disease, in Shantou, in the eastern part of Guangdong, to the provincial capital for emergency treatment at the end of March.

It took less than two hours to send the baby for the operation by helicopter, one-third of the time it would have taken by ambulance.

The normal charge for helicopter service is about 10,000 yuan ($1,580) an hour for commercial purposes in Guangdong.

(China Daily)