iscover
NSW Ambulance has completed a two-month trial using drones for search and rescue operations.
Conducted in partnership with Toll Aviation, the Remotely Piloted Aeromedical Clinical Systems (RPACS) trial was aimed at improving operational speed and safety in remote or hard-to-reach areas, with seven paramedics from critical care and special operations trained to operate the drones.
This content is available exclusively to Australian Aviation members.
A monthly membership is only $5.99 or save with our annual plans.
- Australian Aviation quarterly print & digital magazines
- Access to In Focus reports every month on our website
- Unlimited access to all Australian Aviation digital content
- Access to the Australian Aviation app
- Australian Aviation quarterly print & digital magazines
- Access to In Focus reports every month on our website
- Access to our Behind the Lens photo galleries and other exclusive content
- Daily news updates via our email bulletin
- Unlimited access to all Australian Aviation digital content
- Access to the Australian Aviation app
- Australian Aviation quarterly print & digital magazines
- Access to In Focus reports every month on our website
- Access to our Behind the Lens photo galleries and other exclusive content
- Daily news updates via our email bulletin
Each RPACS drone has thermal imaging and high-intensity searchlights and can carry essential items to the site of an incident. Loudspeakers and live-streaming capabilities allow for secure, two-way communication between patients and medical responders.
“By integrating drones into our operations, this initiative allows us to innovate and reduce environmental impact while maintaining the high standards of emergency care our communities expect,” NSW Ambulance chief executive Dr Dominic Morgan said.
“RPACS drones can cover vast and challenging terrain rapidly and efficiently, ensuring that paramedics on the ground have access to real-time data that can help save lives.”
The drones can deliver medical supplies, including defibrillators, blood, and antivenom, up to seven kilometres away while reducing demand on aeromedical helicopters.
“A full evaluation of the trial is now underway, looking at environmental sustainability, operational outcomes, and future benefits of this technology to patient care and aeromedical operations,” the NSW government said in a press release.
NSW Health Minister Ryan Park said the drone trial “unlocks a range of potential to improve our ability to reach patients in difficult-to-reach locations”.
“These drones feature a range of capabilities to more effectively locate patients, communicate with them and deliver essential items.”
“It allows aeromedical and special operations paramedics to make better decisions, and therefore, improve patient outcomes. I am so proud that NSW Ambulance is leading the way in the evolution of emergency healthcare.”
Drones are seeing increasing use for aeromedical and search-and-rescue applications, with the NSW State Emergency Service (SES) last month using them to deliver medical supplies to flood-affected regions in the state’s north.
NSW has been trialling drone delivery as part of a program launched during the recent Tropical Cyclone Alfred; the state currently employs 12 pilots who operate seven drones, but wants to expand the initiative.
Surf Life Saving NSW is also partnering with Babcock to investigate using drones beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS), to modernise its coastal operations and “radically transform the state’s surf lifesaving operations into a broader national asset for disaster prevention, response, and recovery”.
