The easy availability of small aircraft for charter, has been accompanied by increasing willingness on the part of insurance companies to pay the costs for the use of these air ambulances. Operators of aircraft in the United Kingdom and Europe were becoming increasingly worried about the moral, medical and legal implications of carrying seriously ill or injured passengers. In late 1980 the UK Air Taxi Operators Association (ATOA) began to formulate Guidelines for air ambulance operations, and in 1981 these were incorporated into the studies of the same subject by the International Business Aircraft Association (IBAA), Europe. This paper presents the Guidelines adopted by the ATOA and ratified by IBAA Europe. The Guidelines are designed not to hamper the development of aeormedical rescue, but to bring it within a proper medical aeronautical framework for the safety of the patients, and medical and aircraft crews.

During the last 30 years development of the international travel market in Europe has resulted in many patients becoming ill or suffering injuries many miles from their own home. In the past these people would have remained in a local hospital and received treatment by the locally available facilities. There has been a revolution in the technology of medical transport, providing skills and equipment which allows the most seriously injured people to be transported over long distances. The public demand has pressed insurance companies to offer as part of travel packages the possiblity of medical repatriation. The number of new serious medical cases abroad reported to Europ Assistance in London, rose from 736 in 1978 to a projected 3,500 in 1983.