PLANS for a landing site for emergency helicopters at Taunton’s Musgrove Park Hospital have been given the go-ahead.
Proposals for the helipad in front of A&E in the Queen’s Building were approved by Taunton Deane Council’s planning committee last week.
It will be built on an existing car park, while traffic control barriers and warning lights will be installed on approach roads.
The helipad will cut the time it takes to transfer patients to Musgrove by helicopter – currently the Dorset and Somerset Air Ambulance lands at the Civil Service Club and people are transferred in a land ambulance to the hospital.
A number of objections were received from people living nearby, but planners decided the impact of increased noise levels were outweighed by the importance of “speedy care for critical emergency patients”.
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