In 2009, I decided to create a network of helipads in the city and instructed the General Directorate for Emergency Situations tofind suitable locations for their arrangement. My plan was to make helicopters a full-fledged urban transport. At the stage one we planned to make them special-purpose transport, so that doctors and rescuers could quickly respond to the calls of victims of major accidents, fires, and other disasters, because a helicopter can fly through the whole of Kyiv in less than ten minutes.
City doctors welcomed this decision. The chief physicians of Kyiv hospitals confirmed: “Helicopters are very much needed in Kyiv, because so important time to save someone’s life is lost in traffic jams.
The use of helicopters in medicine is a world practice! In total, more than 1,800 medical helicopters owned by both commercial and non-commercial organizations are used around the globe. The main buyers of medical helicopters are the USA, Canada, the countries of the European Union. For instance, in Germany there are more than 70 medical helicopters They have been used to transport the injured and sick persons since 1968. In 1978 they already had 22 helipads built for ambulance helicopters with a range of up to 50 kilometers. The United States is the leader in the number of medical helicopters, they have about 850 units. The network of medical helicopters is built in such a way that 79% of the entire US population is in a 10-minute flight zone to provide assistance for 20 minutes, which makes it easy to implement the golden hour rule, when the victim is transported to a medical facility in less than one hour after an accident, an attack of illness, etc.
In New York, helicopter landing pads are located on more than 300 buildings. There are more than twenty such places in Moscow.
17 sites were selected for the construction of helipads. We submitted our proposals to the Cabinet of Ministers together with the Ministry of Transport and Communications. 9 sites were approved then, on some streets it was planned to build 2-3 helipads.
I am sure that the question of further implementation of this initiative is primarily a matter of time, and sooner or later it will be resolved.
This is the experience of all developed countries of the world and large cities, and I hope that Kyiv will be among them!