PORTLAND (AP) – Medical helicopters will be allowed to land atop Maine Medical Center beginning today, a change that will save precious time in bringing patients to the hospital.

The hospital’s new $1.5 million helipad, located on top of its parking garage, means Lifeflight of Maine will no longer have to bring patients to Portland International Jetport, where they are then brought by ambulance to the hospital.

It will cut at least 10 minutes in transport time in emergencies and be easier on patients – who could be suffering a heart attack or have broken bones – who won’t have to be shifted from a helicopter to an ambulance and then undergo a ride through city traffic.

With a helipad on site, Maine Medical Center expects more patients to be transported there by helicopter. The hospital could also get more patients from hospitals in southern York County that previously sent critically ill patients by air to Boston or New Hampshire hospitals.

“A fair number of patients, we could take care of and keep them closer to home,” said Dr. Robert Winchell, head of trauma and burn surgery.

Maine Med is the last of the state’s three trauma centers to get a helipad.

LifeFlight already flies to Central Maine Medical Center in Lewiston and Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor. Those two hospitals started the air ambulance service in 1998 to ensure that patients in remote locations wouldn’t be stranded when they needed emergency care.

Maine Med has been working for the better part of a decade to get a helipad, but has had to contend with a lengthy city permitting process, said spokesman Wayne Clark.

The hospital’s neighbors, who already hear ambulance sirens and jetport traffic, worried about the added noise of helicopters.

But the hospital showed a commitment to using flight paths that would cause the least disruption and helicopters that use technology that minimizes noise, said Patrick Murphy, a member of the Western Promenade Neighborhood Association.

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Information from: Portland Press Herald, https://www.pressherald.com