Comparative Study of Emergency Air Ambulance Services: Philippines and India

Abstract

 Emergency air medical services, which use helicopters and small airplanes as flying intensive care units, are important for reaching patients in remote or disaster-affected areas. India and the Philippines both face difficult geography. India has mountains and far-flung islands, while the Philippines is made up of more than seven thousand islands. This paper compares the air emergency medical services of both countries and highlights lessons that India can learn from the Philippine experience. India has about forty-nine air ambulances across the country, supported by policies that recognize the importance of air medical services. The Philippines has far fewer resources, with only a couple of Department of Health airplanes and one military helicopter. However, the Philippines has created innovative systems. In Palawan, the Department of Health works with a non-governmental organization through a memorandum of agreement to use donated airplanes for patient evacuation. This reduces transfer times from several days to just a few hours. The Philippine government is also working to pass a law that will create a national emergency air medical services system. This paper uses a Most Similar Systems Design framework. Both India and the Philippines are lower-middle-income countries in Asia. They both have decentralized forms of government, face frequent natural disasters, and have limited financial resources. Yet their air emergency medical systems have developed in different ways, which makes them suitable for comparison. Data for this study come from government policy documents, legislative texts, news reports, and academic studies published over the past ten years. The findings show that India can learn from the Philippines by building stronger partnerships with non-governmental organizations and the military, adopting clear regulations that include air ambulances, and using new technology such as drones linked with telemedicine. India should also consider a dedicated law for air medical services, improved financing through health programs, better rural coverage, and integration with emergency dispatch systems.