A NEW clinical emergency service to stabilise and transfer the most critically-ill and injured patients to hospital by road and air, ensuring they receive the best life-saving care, will be operational in Wales from April 2015, deputy minister for health Vaughan Gething announced yesterday.

The Emergency Medical Retrieval and Transfer Service Cymru (EMRTS Cymru) is the first national service of its kind in the UK and has been developed using the latest evidence from military and civilian experience.

The service is designed to bring teams of doctors to an injured patient, giving them access to life-saving treatment at the scene of their injury or accident.

It is estimated that EMRTS Cymru could contribute to at least a 40 per cent improvement in survival rates from major trauma in Wales and could also reduce transfer times to specialist hospital care by more than 40 per cent.

EMRTS Cymru will be co-ordinated from a new hub which is being developed by the Welsh Ambulance Services NHS Trust.

It will be staffed by paramedics, supported by NHS consultants.

The service, which will be operational from late April 2015, will have two bases at Swansea and Welshpool, which will provide air and road services for 12 hours a day.

The Welsh Government has earmarked capital funding of £1.895 million in 2014-15 to set up the service, and recurrent revenue funding of £2.868m from 2015-16 to support the EMRTS Cymru service.