Hospital to Build Emergency Helipad

Portsmouth Regional Hospital officials are pleased the city's Board of Adjustment approved a variance Tuesday night that will allow them to create an emergency helipad.

Now if patients need additional emergency medical care, emergency room doctors and staff can call for a DHART or Boston Med Flight helicopter to transport them.

According to William Duffy, the hospital's vice president of engineering and facilities management, the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Advance Response Team helicopter would make an average of 50 landings and takeoffs per year from Portsmouth Regional Hospital.

The emergency helipad, which would be located next to the hospital emergency room parking lot, would also be able to accomodate Boston Med helicopter flights and U.S. Coast Guard helicopters, according to the hospital's application that was submitted to the city's Board of Adjustment.

"Overall, the ZBA was very favorable to our proposed heliport. They felt comfortable that appropriate consideration was given to noise, immediate abutter (Liberty Mutual), and neighborhood concerns. Having the ability to better accommodate  patients needing helicopter delivery or transfer to other facilities was seen as a valid community need," said Duffy in a prepared statement e-mailed by Nancy Notis, a PRH spokesperson.

Portsmouth Regional Hospital officials have wanted to add a helipad emergency service for a long time and Grant Turpin, the hospital's EMS/emergency preparedness coordinator, said the new service will benefit many patients.

"From an emergency medicine point of view the primary benefit of the helipad is that the hospital will be much more efficient in transfers of the very acutely ill patients both into and out of our facility," Turpin said.