The Red Cross (Western Cape Region) Air Ambulance Service

The Air Ambulance Service completed 20 years of service to the people of southern Africa and particularly those of the Cape Province on 6 February 1986. This remarkable achievement by a voluntary organization supported by the community has been attained while maintaining an exceptionally high standard of patient care. Demands on the service have increased to the extent that there are now two aircraft in full-time use. The air ambulances are fully integrated with the overall emergency medical services in the Cape Province, co-ordinated by the hospitals department through its Metro control centre. There is every reason to believe that the number of patients transported by air in the future will increase and with improvements in landing facilities in the larger centres serious thought has to be given to the acquisition of a more sophisticated aircraft to serve these areas in particular.