Sweden nearly ready with its national air ambulance network

The latest addition was the base launch at Gothenburg Landvetter Airport

February began with the opening of a new base of Kommunalförbundet Svenskt Ambulansflyg (KSA), Sweden’s air ambulance service, at Gothenburg Landvetter Airport. The base will be equipped with an aircraft and specially trained nurses who will respond to emergency calls for the southern rural regions of the country.

The overall aim of the network, which will consist of three bases and five aircraft, will be to provide efficient and speedy responses to people living in rural and less populated areas who are in need of urgent care. With the help of airplanes, it will be possible to transport such patients to major healthcare centres in Sweden.

KSA is a municipal initiative

The air ambulance is a municipal association with its own federal council and federal board. KSA is owned and financed by all of Sweden's 21 regions (formerly known as county councils).

The service is meant to coordinate and perform ambulance transport with an aircraft on standby at three bases, 24 hours a day, all year round. Apart from Gothenburg’s airport, there is a base in Umeå, which serves the northern part of the country.

Another base, at Arlanda Airport in Stockholm will launch on 21 February. The Arlanda base, with two manned aircraft during the day and one at night, will be a hub for central Sweden, but also for emergency preparedness in the north and south. 

Nurses with specialist training and experience in IVA or anaesthesia have received theoretical and practical training in aviation medicine in order to form a cabin crew ready for action. They have also done internships at the base in Umeå. 

The nurses at Landvetter are employed at Sahlgrenska University Hospital in Gothenburg with a 50 percent position as Flight Nurse at KSA.