Information Generally Required for a Medical Transfer

The clinical picture drives every other decision: aircraft type, oxygen provisioning, crew configuration and timing. This information comes from the treating hospital rather than from the family, and we will request it directly with the appropriate authorisation in place.

• A current medical report or discharge summary from the treating team
• Current level of support, ventilation, infusions, oxygen requirement, monitoring in use
• Working diagnosis and relevant history bearing on the flight
• Medications, equipment in use, and anything that must continue in the air
• Any fit-to-fly assessment the treating clinicians have completed
• Infection-control considerations relevant to shared cabin space

A named receiving facility with an identified bed and an accepting clinician is not paperwork. It is the condition on which the transfer depends. Without it, a plan can be prepared but not confirmed.

Where the destination hospital has not yet been chosen, that is often the fastest thing to progress while the operational side is being worked in parallel.

• Receiving hospital name and department
• Accepting clinician and their contact point
• Confirmed bed availability and any conditions attached to acceptance
• Ward, ICU or high-dependency destination, which affects the ground leg

We need clear authority to act, and clear authority to receive medical information. In practice that means identifying who is instructing the transfer and, where the patient cannot give consent themselves, who is legally entitled to do so.

• Identity of the instructing party, family, hospital, insurer, assistance company or employer
• Patient consent, or the substitute decision-maker where the patient cannot consent
• Authority for the treating hospital to release clinical information to the transfer coordinator
• Confirmation of who is responsible for payment

For international movements the travel documentation matters as much as the clinical file, and it is a common source of avoidable delay. A patient who left home for a short holiday may have documents that no longer suit a medical repatriation.

• Passports with adequate validity for the patient and any accompanying family member
• Visas or entry authorisations for the destination and for any technical stop where required
• Medical crew travel documents for the ports involved
• Landing and overflight permits, arranged operationally by us
• Customs, immigration and quarantine notification at the arrival port
• Where a patient has died overseas, the separate documentation set applying to repatriation of remains

Where a travel insurer, assistance company, employer or government client is funding the movement, the approval step is very often the longest part of the process. Providing the reference details early is the single most effective way to shorten a timeline.

• Policy number, insurer name and case or claim reference
• The assistance company file reference where one is engaged
• Any pre-authorisation limits or conditions already advised
• For private funding, confirmation of the responsible party and payment method

Medical information is shared only with the parties who need it to make the transfer happen, the sourced medical crew, the operator where operationally required, the receiving facility, and any funding party you have authorised. Uploads go through the secure request form rather than as open email attachments.

Patient identifiers are never placed in web addresses, and we do not pass patient information into advertising or analytics systems. If you would rather discuss a case entirely by phone, that is completely workable.