With a total capacity of 288 MW, Amrumbank West will, once completed, supply approximately 300,000 German households with eco-friendly electricity. However, until then, several hundred people will be working to build the wind farm and put it into operation.

„Zero tolerance for accidents” is an important principle in E.ON’s occupational safety standards. Mandatory standards and safety regulations are implemented to ensure that this standard is met. The same applies to the basic health status of individual employees. But even with every effort to ensure safety, accidents and acute illnesses cannot be 100% excluded. It was therefore seen as crucial to ensure the best possible medical care for the offshore employees.

Due to greater distances from the mainland, providing medical care to offshore wind farms places higher procedural and planning demands. All of the required services must be strictly coordinated to be deployed harmoniously. Interfaces with government rescue services and coordinated procedures require constant monitoring. This is the only way to ensure safe, effective and professional acute and emergency medical care that is also ecologically sustainable.

These demands are met by the holistic WINDEAcare concept where a number of experienced and established partners in the fields of medicine, emergency services, nautical sciences and aviation collaborate to offer expert health care to offshore wind farms.

In addition to the high professional requirements for such a concept, budgetary considerations also play an important role. Only if such high quality remains affordable will it be able to achieve long-term success in the market for health and emergency care, says Prof. Andreas Weyland, Chief Physician of the Department of Anesthesiology, Critical Care, Emergency Medicine and Pain Management at Klinikum Oldenburg and lead medical supervisor for WINDEAcare.

The VENTUSmedic emergency medical dispatch & support center is contacted for medical assistance and emergencies on the wind farm. VENTUSmedic is on stand-by 24/7 365 days a year with medical and emergency expertise to assess the individual situation and take the measures necessary until the rescue helicopter can reach the offshore wind farm. If there are complex emergency situations, established processes with the CCME are initiated, to allow state rescue services to play their role as necessary.

„The vital need in emergencies not to lose time drives all of the procedures so that those things which waste precious minutes are identified and eliminated in the long-term. That’s why we will station one of our rescue helicopters on the North Sea island of Heligoland. This will make it possible for us to shorten the travel time to the wind farm enormously and ensure a level of care for offshore workers that comes close to what we can offer on the mainland.

While flights from the mainland take about 30 to 35 minutes, from Heligoland our emergency medical team can reach the wind farm in about 9 minutes,” says Frank Zabell, Managing Director of Northern HeliCopter GmbH.

Northern HeliCopter was the first company to specialize in offshore rescue helicopters and currently provides service to numerous offshore projects.