To establish an appropriate aeromedical evacuation pathway, British armed forces casualties are medically risk-assessed on an individual basis. Most military patients are flown to RAF Brize Norton, Oxfordshire or (in the case of a Hercules aircraft transfer) RAF Lyneham in Wiltshire.
Should the medical risk assessment identify an urgent clinical need, arrangements will be made to fly patients to the most appropriate airfield, either military or civilian, for quick access to the receiving hospital or facility. In most cases, the most appropriate airfield will be the East Midlands Airport to enable rapid transfer to the University Hospital Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust (UHBFT), the main reception centre for Service casualties and home of the Royal Centre for Defence Medicine (RCDM). However, other civilian airfields have been used occasionally to place patients in the most appropriate place as soon as possible.
In the event of large numbers of patients being repatriated, the destination airfield is defined by the Reception Arrangements for Military Patients (RAMP) agreed from a rota produced by the Department of Health (DH) and Department for Transport (DFT) based on:
Location of available NHS resources and the required treatment for the patients.
The requirement to avoid overloading facilities in any one NHS region.
Type of aircraft and the likely patient load.
Aircraft capability and expected weather conditions.