Medical escort
First Class
If you desire privacy and luxury during your long intercontinental flight, the First Class cabin is an excellent choice. The First Class cabin provides a comfortable environment with a bed, where you can be cared for by our medical team, secluded from other passengers. Naturally, we take care of all communication and arrangements with the airline and ensure appropriate wheelchair service to and from the First Class cabin.
Business Class
During medical escort flights, we prefer to fly in Business Class, enabling us to convert the seat into a 'bed' for the patient. This also provides us with the necessary space to offer adequate care during the flight. Naturally, the patient must be able to sit during takeoff and landing. Throughout the flight, the patient can lie down comfortably. The patient is transported in a wheelchair right up to the airplane seat.
It goes without saying that we carefully assess and communicate the medical condition and suitability of the patient for such travel.
Stretcher
If the patient is fit enough to fly but unable to sit during takeoff and landing, the use of a stretcher can be an ideal solution. This stretcher is installed in the Economy Class area, taking up 6 or 9 seats depending on the plane's layout. Here too, we naturally take care of all the formalities related to the patient's acceptance by the airline. The patient is transferred on and off the aircraft using a lift with a scoop stretcher. It's important to note that our ambulance vehicle is permitted to drive onto the airport via a special access route to the tarmac where the aircraft is located, ensuring the shortest and most comfortable route for the patient. Our medical team stays with the patient throughout the journey.
Medical assistance on a commercial airline
How it works
A medical escort is a qualified medical professional, or team of professionals, who travel alongside you while in transit to take care of your needs. When a patient needs to be repatriated quickly, we contact our commercial airline partners to secure a place on the nearest available flight home. We take care of every detail, from beginning to end.
We’ll arrange for an ambulance to take your patient to the airport. Once on board, the escort will make sure they have everything they need for the journey: they bring all the necessary medicine and equipment with them. During the flight, this might mean administering pain relief and keeping the patient hydrated and comfortable. In more serious cases we can provide oxygen support up to a level of medium care, even with the possibility of a built-in stretcher.
When you land, we’ll arrange for your patient to be collected at the airport and taken to the destination hospital. We can also call ahead so that medical staff in the landing country are on standby for the patient’s arrival.
Faster, further & more economic
The key benefits
While there are several different methods of repatriation, and varying reasons why you might use each of them, a medical escort offers several key benefits.
The service is:
Faster
Transferring a patient by scheduled flight is significantly quicker than using a conventional ambulance. Repatriations can be complex and even risky, and speed is often of the essence.
Further
There is no distance limit for a repatriation under medical supervision. We have transported patients from every corner of the globe, from Mexico to Spain, Germany to China.
More economic
Using a commercial airline usually proves much more cost-effective than chartering a private flight – particularly over long distances.
Contact EMS for a free quote
Do you want to know whether a repatriation by a medical escort is right for your medical situation? Feel free to contact the medical coordinators of EMS. Give us a call at +44 20 4586 1000 or simply fill in the form for a free quote. The medical professionals of EMS are always on standby to support you. In emergency cases we aim to reply within one hour. EMS is your trusted and experienced medical escort company.
