Medical flights are proving to be crucial in India’s fight against the pandemic. An air ambulance was the only recourse when a middle-aged man from the rural northern part of India needed speciality care recently. He was ultimately flown to a speciality hospital in Chennai, thousands of miles away, in the southern part of the country. Thanks for the timely intervention, the patient continued breathing and is well on his way to recovery. The country has seen an unprecedented demand for medical flights recently, especially for transportation between rural areas to the big cities.
Even the Country’s Navy Now has Medical Flights for Civilians
As evidenced by the world, India has been caught sitting ducks in the deadly second wave of the pandemic that has snuffed the lives of thousands. The nation’s Navy has now converted an all-weather chopper into an air ambulance. If all goes well, it is hoped that more of such medical flights will be designed to help the civilian population. It must be noted in this context that the monsoons have arrived early in the country and all-weather medical flights will be a boon to the people since the rains can be relentless, hindering normal choppers to fly.
Medical Flights are Fairly Expensive in the Country
Typical medical flights cost about a thousand US dollars in the country at the very least. For a nation in which a majority of the population does not make nearly half this amount in a year, a service like that is far from reach. Of course, then there is the middle class that is comparatively affluent, for whom – though expensive – such a service is still affordable. However, the median cost of medical flights is much more and is in the range of USD 10,000, which is unaffordable even for the middle class in most instances.
