On 26th November, in reply to a Dáil question from Deputy Denis Naughten the Minister for Defence, Simon Coveney confirmed that the Working Group, set up by the Minister for Health to consider how best to provide a permanent EAS service, has completed its work and its Report has been sent to the Minister for Health for his consideration. He also gave the latest figures for completed missions from the commencement of the pilot EAS service on 4th June 2012. Until 31st October 2014 the Air Corps had completed a total of 816 EAS missions. He added “these taskings included cases of severe heart attack (called segment elevation myocardial infarction or STEMI), trauma and other time-critical cases, as tasked by the HSE’s National Aero-Medical Coordination Centre. To date, STEMI and suspected STEMI related missions have accounted for almost one-third of completed EAS missions”.
Turning to Air Ambulance missions, since CASA CN235 call sign ‘Irish 253’ completed the milestone 100th mission of 2014 on 15th November, the Learjet from 102 Sqn has flown the 102nd while the 103rd patient was transferred on the 23rd November in an AW 139 from 301 Sqn.
