A MAN who suffered a nasty head injury on a fishing boat was airlifted to hospital after coastguards said there were no ambulances available.

Coastguards said as South Western Ambulance had no paramedics to immediately attend the incident in Weymouth a decision was made to fly the man to hospital.

The 52-year-old holidaymaker smashed his head in a fall while fishing on a local charter boat off Portland. He initially fell unconscious and was helped by others on board and put in the recovery position.

Wyke Coastguard Rescue Team was asked to meet the boat, Duchess II, when it brought the the casualty into Weymouth Harbour on Thursday.

But not long after the boat had to speed back out to sea again so the man could be airlifted by the coastguard helicopter.

A statement from Wyke Coastguard said: “The team assessed the casualty’s condition, passing on details to the coastguard National Maritime Operations Centre, and administering further first aid. The NMOC passed on details to South Western Ambulance which were trying to allocate resources to attend the incident, but had no units immediately available.”

“As the casualty had suffered a head injury, and was unable to be removed from the vessel before further medical assessment, the NMOC asked the skipper to proceed to Portland Harbour in order that (helicopter) Rescue 106 could extract them.”

Coastguard officers Paul Holmes and Richard Legg went out with the boat, checking the casualty and liaising with the helicopter crew over the airlift.

Once the boat was in a safe spot, the helicopter paramedic was winched down and took the man up to the aircraft. He was taken to Dorset County Hospital for treatment.

Wyke Coastguard said: “Our sincere thanks go to the skipper and patrons of Duchess II for their valuable assistance with the casualty.”

Senior Coastal Operations Officer for HM Coastguard Rob Sansom said: “This decision to use the helicopter instead of waiting for an ambulance is because the condition of the casualty warranted it.

"The vessel proceeded back to sea with a couple of coastguards aboard to assist, so the helicopter could winch more safely and easily.”

He added: “The Coastguard team did a marvellous job as always, and full credit must go to the crew of the Duchess II, who carried out first aid after the accident.”

A spokesman for South Western Ambulance said it was made aware of an incident at 9.30am involving a man who had been seasick and had fainted. The service was told the patient would be arriving on a boat at Weymouth at 9.45am, and a crew attended the harbour at 10.45am.

The spokesman said the ambulance didn’t request the airlift.

He added that the incident would have been prioritised against other jobs.

*The incident happened on the same morning Weymouth Lifeboat was launched to rescue a broken down vessel off Portland.