After nearly 20 years of planning, the new helipad at Cork University Hospital (CUH) has come into operational use.
The new facility received its first patient transfer, the Health Service Executive said.
Before today, patients requiring emergency transfer by air had to land at a local GAA pitch or at Cork Airport.
Following a road crash, a woman in her 30s was transferred directly to CUH on board an EC 135 helicopter, staffed by a NAS crew from the Mitchelstown area.
The patient's condition is described as being stable.
Cork University Hospital CEO David Donegan said that "having a helipad on the hospital campus is a major improvement in access to and from the hospital".
He added that patients and now able to "receive their life-saving care within 10 minutes of landing".
The last helipad at CUH was decommissioned in 2003.
