A number of hospitals in Wales have existing helicopter landing sites but only three currently support 24-hour-a-day landings – Ysbyty Gwynedd, in Bangor; Ysbyty Glan Clwyd, in Rhyl and Morriston Hospital, in Swansea.

The £180,000 investment announced today means helicopter landing sites, which have already been cleared for day landings, will become available for night landings. They will rely on rural volunteer or hospital response teams to deploy temporary landing lights and windsocks when alerted to the arrival of an aircraft.

The initial sites to be supported include:

1) Bronglais Hospital, in Aberystwyth – Penglais School playing fields, Waunfawr, Aberystwyth;
2) Withybush Hospital, in Haverfordwest – Haverfordwest Airport;
3) Glangwili Hospital, in Carmarthen – existing offsite helipad;
4) Singleton Hospital, in Swansea – field behind Singleton Fire station;
5) Royal Gwent Hospital, in Newport – existing offsite helipad;
6) Neville Hall Hospital, in Abergavenny – existing hospital helipad;
7) Royal Glamorgan Hospital, in Llantrisant – existing hospital helipad;
8) Prince Charles Hospital, in Merthyr Tydfil – existing hospital helipad;
9) Wrexham Maelor Hospital – requires new helicopter landing site for night landings;
10) Brecon site for Powys – Infantry Battle School, Dering Lines Ministry of Defence facility, Brecon.

A further 27 sites across Wales are being surveyed to provide rendezvous points for helicopters and ground vehicles.

The enhancement of helicopter landing sites will support EMRTS Cymru to conduct key clinical activities, including:

1) Pre-hospital critical care by using helicopter landing sites as rendezvous points for ambulance crews if aircraft cannot land near the scene of an incident because of geography, darkness or bad weather;
2) Transferring time critical, life or limb-threatening adult patients from referring hospitals (including emergency departments and minor injury units);
3) Support standalone midwife-led units by stabilising women and babies with life-threatening problems and transferring them to a consultant-led unit;
4) Transferring neonatal teams to time-critical cases.