Rescue helicopter doctor Andrew Singer retires after almost 22 years as an angel in the sky

The work left him with a keen appreciation of the tenuous nature of life as he stepped off the helicopter for the last time after his final shift on Saturday.

A senior specialist in emergency medicine with Canberra Health Services, Professor Singer has been on an estimated 1000 medical retrievals with the helicopter since starting with the service in Canberra in January, 1999.

Some cases have stuck with him, including an horrific accident on the Princes Highway north of Batemans Bay in 2009 when a car and fuel tanker collided. Two children in the back of the car had already perished as Dr Singer worked to save their parents.

"It is mainly car crashes. A lot of people doing stupid things," he said.

"Quite a few of them seem to be people having a weekend away from the city on a property and decide to have a few drinks and think they're Superman on a quad bike. There is quite a bit of that.

"And because they're in fairly isolated locations, we can often get there quicker than an ambulance. Or, alternatively, an ambulance can get there, but they've only got a two-person crew and it needs a bit more work or someone with a bit more expertise - we can deliver that more quickly. We're essentially a mobile intensive care unit."

That means if a patient at a smaller, regional hospital needs to go to a bigger hospital, the helicopter is the best option.

"We can go pick up a patient, stabilise them, deliver them to high-level intensive care, and keep them alive in the process," he said.

Originally from Sydney, Professor Singer has been involved with aeromedical retrieval for almost 34 years, originally working on the Westpac Life Saver helicopter when it was based at the Royal North Shore Hospital.

"It sounded like something that would be interesting to do," he said, of using his emergency medicine training in a different way.

He also worked on rescue helicopters in America, had a break as he worked in Sydney and Newcastle and then moved to Canberra when the rescue helicopter service was in its infancy.

"One of the reasons for coming to Canberra was the service was just starting; it started in October 1998. So not here from the very beginning, but pretty close to it," he said.

The helicopter went to many isolated sites, but medical staff being winched in and out did not happen often, despite the stereotype.

Professor Singer, 59, remembers when he was with the Westpac rescue helicopter, it used ropes rather than a mechanical winch. "So we used to practice abseiling off the multi-storey carpark," he said, with a laugh.

"Nowadays, the winch makes it a bit more controlled and a bit easier."

Winch rescues happen only when absolutely necessary, not least to also ensure the safety of the medical crew.

Professor Singer said in 22 years, he had only been winched into a site once, when a young woman fell off rocks near the Googong Dam spillway.

His team was able to roll her onto a stretcher and hoist her out of the ravine.

Professor Singer said dealing with all the emergencies and confronting scenes was something that he had learned to manage but never take for granted.

"I've been an emergency specialist for 30 years, plus six years of training before that, and I've seen a lot of people die," he said.

"Part of it is, with exposure, you do get used to it. That's not to say you've become completely heartless ... It gives you an appreciation that life is finite."