LifeFlight Australia has earned a coveted stamp of international approval following EURAMI accreditation. LifeFlight's fixed wing fleet is the only service of its kind in Australia and New Zealand to be officially recognised for fulfilling the organisation's standards and is one of only three to gain accreditation in the Asia Pacific region.

The EURAMI Standards are created and published by the European Aero-Medical Institute as a guideline and requirement for high quality aeromedical transportation, with the purpose of promoting first rate aeromedical transfers all over the world.

"Gaining this accreditation is important recognition for LifeFlight's fixed wing fleet, aeromedical teams and the organisation as a whole. We have always maintained the highest possible standards and having that stamp of approval confirms our commitment to being among the best in the business," says CEO Ashley van de Velde OAM. "We absolutely support the EURAMI principles that safe, ethical and quality healthcare and transport practices should be the norm, and we operate LifeFlight with those beliefs always at top of mind."

LifeFlight Australia has been saving lives and serving the community for over 40 years, offering Australia's most diversified service, operating both a fixed wing and rotary wing fleet. LifeFlight crews have helped more than 74,000 people since 1979, delivering rapid response critical care. This includes responding to primary emergency scenes, conducting search and rescues and undertaking hospital transfers.

LifeFlight's fixed wing fleet consists of four Challenger 604 aircraft, which undertake domestic transfers and international repatriation, able to cater for neo-natal, paediatric and high acuity patients.

"The EURAMI audit process was rigorous; a thorough examination of almost every facet of our service from our engineering procedures to the operation of our 24 hour communications, co-ordination and control centre, " says LifeFlight Group head of HSSE Luke Peyton. "We were pleased to be part of that compliance assessment process. We were already confident that in many areas we not only meet EURAMI requirements, but actually exceed the measures of assessment. There was a particular focus on the medical services provided by LifeFlight Retrieval Medicine. The EURAMI auditor attended our retrieval registrar training week, which is an intense education course for all our doctors. I understand he was very impressed with LifeFlight Training Academy and LRM's procedures."

The LifeFlight Air Ambulance jets can be airborne within 90 minutes of the first call from the LifeFlight co-ordination centre. Crewed by LifeFlight's own highly experienced pilots, critical care doctors and flight nurses, the fixed wing aircraft, which are based in Brisbane, Townsville and Singapore, are available around the clock and fly hundreds of lifesaving missions each year. The aircraft provide a fully equipped medical platform, which makes them equivalent to a flying intensive care unit.

"The EURAMI accreditation means more to LifeFlight than simply a logo on our website. It is an absolute assurance to our clients and patients that they are engaging with an aeromedical service that not only meets Australia's high standards of care, but also those standards recognised around the world within our industry," says van de Velde.