St. Peter-Ording / Emden Favourable winds for Offshore According to industry reports, there should be wind turbines in the North and East Sea with an installed power output of 3000 megawatts in the grid already by the end of 2015. Approximately 1000 engineers and workers are currently at sea building wind farms – some at dizzying heights. Accidents cannot be ruled out. In order to ensure that a rescue chain for offshore wind farms is just as practice oriented and as reliable as on land, Northern HeliCopter GmbH already developed a concept for offshore air rescue in 2010 that is now a market leader in the German Bight under the name of WINDEAcare.

“I find what they have to offer, in particular telemedicine, very exciting,” says Dr. Frank Nägele, who briefly visited the offshore air rescue station at the airport in St. Peter-Ording. There, at the invitation of Frank Zabell, managing director of Northern HeliCopter GmbH (NHC) with its head office in Emden, the State Secretary from the Ministry for Economics, Labour, and Technology of Schleswig-Holstein was informed about offshore rescue on the wind farms. Zabell and the company manager, Herbert Janssen, presented WINDEAcare’s concept for emergency care. “There is a paramedic on site on the supply ships or the converter platforms who can use telemedical support in case of emergency,” Janssen explained. If the Medical Support Centre of VENTUSmedic receives an emergency call, the helicopter is deployed. On board the helicopter are two pilots, one hoist operator, an emergency doctor as well as a paramedic from the Order of St. John from the Weser-Ems region.

While the helicopter is on its way to the patient, an emergency doctor in the telemedical centre provides assistance for the paramedic on site. As soon as the patient is on board the helicopter he or she is treated in the air until arrival at a clinic. If the rescue helicopter is grounded because of weather conditions, the patient is treated in the “MEDICbox.” This small mobile clinic is located on a ship. The operator of the wind turbines is responsible for the safety of its employees.With a view to the state development strategy and on the lookout for new forms of medical care for his state, Dr. Nägele demonstrated that he was impressed with the integrated and practice-oriented care concept. The state secretary suggests a similar service be instituted for the Hallig islands, with a paramedic and a telemedical support post on site. The MEDICbox is also an option for the Hallig islands.The State Secretary was also excited by the NHC rescue helicopter, with the radio call sign “Northern Rescue O1", which is stationed in St. Peter-Ording and whose medical equipment is above standard.With a similarly equipped ambulance helicopter at its home airport in Emden in Niedersachsen, NHC flies patients from the East Frisian islands to hospitals on the mainland. “This service is an addition to its regular services. With this service we are not taking anything away from anyone,” Janssen emphasised. Dr. Nägele found the ambulance air service very interesting. “This is emergency care with a future,” the Social Democrat said.

The district administrator, Dieter Larsen, who visited the offshore air rescue station a few days later, came to the same conclusion. Against the background of demographic change, he was also impressed by the air ambulance services from the East Frisian islands, which NHC has been carrying out since 2008 for Niedersachsen. The functioning care concept, together with the advantages of telemedicine, could also be used for patient care on the Hallig islands, Harssen commented, anticipating the increasing specialization of hospitals. NHC finds the increased deployments in the offshore area, as well as the good geographical situation of the airport of St. Peter Ording – for which there is no alternative – grounds for building a new helicopter rescue station by the end of 2015. This could also be used for an air ambulance service.

In addition to Northern HeliCopter GmbH (helicopter and medical crew), the WINDEAcare partners include the Johanniter-Unfall-Hilfe of the Weser-Ems region (Emergency Dispatch & Medical Support Centre / paramedics), Klinikum Oldenburg (medical supervision, research, and development), IQ.medworks (telemedicine), and EMS Maritime Offshore GmbH (navigation personnel of the emergency dispatch centre) The product WINDEAcare is marketed by WINDEA Offshore GmbH.