Request help »

The patient's fitness to travel

Few people know who has the final say about a patient's fitness to travel: In the case of a medical repatriation, it is the doctor supervising the flight.

Request help »

The patient's fitness to travel

The question of whether you are fit to travel often arises during the preparations for medical repatriation in an ambulance aircraft, scheduled airliner, helicopter or ground ambulance. Many patients and their relatives do not know who can best answer this question and therefore rely on the opinion of the doctors in the foreign hospital treating the patient to determine if the health of a passenger is adequate for travel back to the UK.

Communication between your family and responsible doctors is not always without its problems, especially abroad. Particularly when assessing whether as an intensive care patient you are fit to travel back to the UK, there are often considerable differences of opinion. The treating doctors often feel responsible, not only for your treatment but also for your health for the overall trip, especially from one country and to another (i.e. your repatriation after discharge). 

What may cause doubts about your fitness to travel

Questions regarding your health and overall fitness to travel arise in the following cases:

  1. When local doctors question it
  2. If your family wants to transfer you at their own request
  3. If your transport is organised or refused, by an insurance company

In the first situation, your family wants to undertake medical repatriation but your fitness to travel is doubted by the attending doctors. In the second case, your family wishes to check whether medical repatriation is feasible for you. In the third case, it must be proved to the insurance company that your repatriation is medically necessary or medically reasonable.

Transportfähigkeit des Patienten

Who decides whether you are fit to travel?

If you are a patient who needs travelling, regardless of your condition, whether it is an injury, disease or a complicated medical condition, you are welcome to contact us at any time. Our medical flight specialists have years of expertise in the field of international medical repatriation, and they are best placed to assess your actual transportability. The final decision is made by the doctor who leads the care on the medical repatriation flight because only he or she is responsible for your wellbeing. Due to the flight doctor's experience, you can rely on their assessment, even if it does not match that of the attending local doctor. If you have been classified as unfit to travel by the local hospital, we recommend that you seek a second opinion to adequately assess your health. It is worth noting that our team also has significant experience conducting medical repatriation flights for covid-19 patients. 

A detailed consultation with relatives is normally carried out in advance of the ambulance flight to inform them about possible risks. If transport risks are identified, the family and the doctors then reach a decision together. If staying abroad is likely to involve higher risks, the medical repatriation will, in many cases, go ahead, despite the known transport risks. The ambulance aircraft we use are fitted with intensive care equipment so that transfers of intensive care patients can be carried out quickly and safely should the need arise.

Contact us now about your medical repatriation

Get in touch with our 24-hour service at any time and describe your case to us. Our medical service will assess your fitness to travel, free of charge. Upon request, we will make you a non-binding offer specific to your case. Contact us via:

Back