Airline operators International SOS and the Deer Jet Co Ltd yesterday launched an emergency medical rescue service across the Taiwan Straits.

The emergency service will be run with direct flights by chartered passenger aircraft.

The launch comes just days after the signing of an agreement on the expansion of cross-Straits air services by the mainland's Cross-Straits Aviation Transport Exchange Council and the Taipei Airlines Association, on June 14, 2006.

According to the agreement, chartered passenger flights can run directly across the Straits during the Tomb Sweeping Festival, the Lunar New Year Holiday and some other traditional Chinese festivals.

The two sides have also agreed to open chartered flights for emergency medical rescue, first aid for the handicapped and chartered cargo flights for special needs.

"As well as other chartered passenger flights services, which deal with ordinary passenger and can only be done during festivals, the agreement approved our company to carry out emergency medical rescues at any time," said Chen Ming, CEO of Deer Jet.

"The launch means that from now on patients in the Chinese mainland or Taiwan can be flown directly across the Straits," said Chen.

For example, if a businessman from Taiwan, who is working in Beijing, falls ill and wants to be treated in Taipei, he can be home within about 3 hours, said Chen.

He need only apply for the service from Chen's company or SOS, which will both provide medical care during the journey, the CEO said.

In the past patients needed to take an ordinary passenger flight to Hong Kong, then wait for flights leaving for Taiwan or the mainland, said Charles Van Reenen, North Asia Region medical director of International SOS.

This meant a lot time, money and sometimes the best moment for treatment had been wasted during the journey, he said.

Over the past 10 years, Deer Jet and International SOS have jointly provided a lot of medical services, with accumulated total flight times of 1,200 hours.

From July 2005 to June 2006, International SOS carried 638 patients from the mainland to Taiwan, said John Williams, managing director of International SOS China.

(China Daily June 28, 2006)