What is medical repatriation?
Medical repatriation, by air or road ambulance, is the term for returning patients to their home country under expert medical supervision.
If injured or taken ill abroad, patients often want (or need) to return to their home country for specialist medical treatment, particularly if they require long-term care.
Medical repatriation is the process of helping a patient, once medically stabilised and assessed as “fit to fly”, to make the journey home either by air (aeromedical) or road, accompanied by a full medical team or a medical escort.
Why may repatriation be required?
Wings Medical Group has repatriated patients with a wide range of medical conditions and causes, the most common being:
- Skiing accidents
- Car accidents
- Falls and fractures
- Heart attacks or acute illness
- Long-term illnesses requiring palliative care
Why use Wings repatriation services?
The process of medical repatriation can be complex, particularly if the patient does not have medical cover or speak the language. Wings provides a professional service from first call to final destination that offers patients and their loved ones total support and peace of mind.
Aeromedical repatriation is covered under most travel insurance policies at no additional cost and Wings will work directly with the travel insurance company wherever possible. However, in some cases private medical repatriation is required where:
- A travel insurance policy is declined because a previous condition has not been declared or terms are breached in some other way
- Patients have second homes in their home country or abroad, but no repatriation insurance
- Patients are living abroad but wish to return to their country of origin because of long-term or terminal illness.
- A patient has died and their remains need to be returned home for burial.
How does repatriation work?
Depending on the distance involved, the nature of the injury or illness and the urgency required for treatment, Wings offers a range of services to meet the patient’s needs and will recommend one of the following methods of medical repatriation:
- Intensive care air ambulance
- Medical escort air taxi
- Commercial flight with medical escort
- Road ambulance
Wings repatriates patients into and out of the UK as well as between non-UK countries worldwide.
