About us

Together we are the Air Ambulance Service.

Here you can read more about the participants in the service and how we collaborate for the benefit of the patient.

Read more about those who work in the service here.

Small flying "hospitals" 

A significant quality element in the Norwegian air ambulance service is the high medical competence on board. These are doctors and nurses who also work in the anaesthesia and intensive care departments of hospitals and can therefore provide advanced medical treatment before and during transport.

In addition, all rescue personnel on the ambulance and rescue helicopters have a nursing or ambulance background. 

 

Our air ambulances are equipped with very advanced medical equipment. 60% of the patients we transport in the ambulance helicopters have a serious condition that, according to several scientific studies, greatly benefits from early advanced medical intervention. 

We primarily undertake three types of missions:

• ​Primary missions – acute illness and injury – the patient is located outside a hospital and needs to be taken to the appropriate hospital as quickly as possible. Most helicopter missions fall into this category.

• ​Secondary missions – involve transferring a patient from one hospital level to a higher level to provide appropriate and necessary treatment. This could be, for example, a severely injured patient who must be treated at a larger trauma centre. This is the most common type of mission for the air ambulances.

• ​Return missions – transferring a patient from a specialist hospital to their local hospital for further treatment – this alleviates the hospital queue at larger hospitals and makes them more efficient. This is also a common mission type for the air ambulances.

Additionally, our ambulance helicopters conduct search and rescue (SAR) missions on behalf of the rescue authorities. 
Approximately 8% of our missions are SAR missions (search and rescue) and ambulance missions with a rescue technical component. 
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Statistics on flight hours​

 

The four health authorities have a "responsibility for" the air ambulance service. The health enterprise Air Ambulance Service HF has been established to fulfil this responsibility and ensures the flight operations of the air ambulance for the entire country. 

Organisation of the Air Ambulance Service

The Chief Executive Officer is accountable to the board and has an administration and staff. Under the CEO, there are three departments: Finance Department, Professional Department (including Medical Technical Workshop), and Flight Operations Department (including Flight Coordination Centre) 

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