What is a medical evacuation, and how does it work?

What is a medical evacuation?

A medical evacuation, or medevac, is when you are taken from a place without suitable hospitals to a place with suitable hospitals. This can happen by road, sea, or air, and the vehicle you travel in will have life-saving medical equipment.

With a William Russell policy, if you have a life-threatening or limb-threatening injury and you need hospital treatment that is not available locally, we will arrange for you to be taken to the nearest suitable hospital.

For example, if you become seriously ill while working on a remote island, you might be flown by air ambulance or private plane to a hospital in the nearest city on the mainland.

How does medical evacuation work?

Here is the process for arranging a medical evacuation:

1. You tell us about a medical emergency
2. We assess the situation (see below for the factors we consider)
3. We handle the logistics
4. Transportation arrives to pick you up

There are plenty of factors that we must consider when arranging your evacuation:

• Your medical condition
• Where you want to go
• Availability of service providers
• Necessary paperwork, like visas
• The time of day
• Your nationality
• Travel restrictions, such as COVID-19
• Appropriate and relevant costs
• Our judgment