Lack of aircraft causes wait for medevac service

A lack of available aircraft is what caused the delay in getting a Happy Valley-Goose Bay infant to the Janeway Hospital in St. John's, says Eastern Health's manager of Paramedicine and Medical Transport.

In last week's edition of The Labradorian, a story revealed how two-year-old Hunter Best waited close to 24-hours for a medevac transport to the Janeway Hospital in St. John's for surgery.

Corey Banks, division manager of Paramedicine and Medical Transport for Eastern Health, said his team was ready at 4pm when the request came in from the Labrador Health Centre but had no aircraft to fly in.

Mr. Banks said his understanding of what happened on Sept. 20 was Labrador Health Centre requested the Labrador-Grenfell Health plane at around 2pm. That plane apparently was busy doing other flights. The Labrador Health Centre was notified around 4pm that they were unable to complete the flight request.

Alison Dower, media relations for Labrador-Grenfell Health, said the Labrador-Grenfell Health aircraft was already airborne when the request was received. It was on route to another site within the region to pick up a critical patient that required immediate transport to St. John's.

Mr. Banks said at about 4pm, Labrador Health Centre made a request to Eastern Health for a transport within 12-hours.

Ms. Dower said the reason why the time frame was within 12-hours was because that is the time frame indicated on the pre-flight screening form for the emergent transfer category.

She said the physician completing the pre-flight screening form indicates the category of transfer required based on their assessment of the patient's condition. There are three categories: critical transport - immediately, emergency transport - within 12-hours, and urgent transport - within 24-hours, Ms. Dower said.

Mr. Banks said, "We contacted Transportation and Works to launch our aircraft in St. John's, but were told the aircraft was unavailable to fly."

Mr. Banks said he didn't know why the aircraft was unavailable to fly.

"We don't run the pilot or aircraft, it's all on Transportation and Works. We have nothing to do with that on a daily basis other than sending our team out to the airport to meet whatever aircraft is sent to pick us up."

Roger Scaplan, director of communications for the Department of Transportation and Works, said at 4pm its plane was already in service on another call. It arrived back in St. John's at approximately 8pm, upon landing it was discovered there was a mechanical problem with the aircraft, which prevented it from going back in service until Sept. 22.

Mr. Banks said "Ultimately it came down to we were ready to fly at 4pm, but had no one to fly with. We had to wait until 8am the next morning for a plane to be available. We departed just after 8am and arrived in Happy Valley-Goose Bay around 11am."

Mr. Banks said there are four agencies involved with air ambulance services in the province.

On the aircraft side, there's Transportation and Works, who provide the plane in St. John's and coordinate all charter aircrafts and helicopters.

Another agency is Labrador-Grenfell Health, which has a plane in St. Anthony and also provides a charter plane out of Happy Valley-Goose Bay to do all flights off the coast. "They do about 20 per cent of the dispatching for air ambulance service."

Then there's Eastern Health, Mr. Banks said he is the manager for the flight team in St. John's and the manager for the dispatch centre, which does about 80 per cent of the dispatching.

The last agency involved is the Janeway Hospital, which has a flight team that does neonatal flights for babies less than 28 days of age.

John Chiasson, grandfather to Hunter, has started a petition to have a medevac stationed in Labrador.

The petition is available for signing at businesses in Happy Valley-Goose Bay.

"It doesn't make any sense that a medevac has to come all the way from St. John's to pick up patients in Labrador. Labrador needs its own system."

Mr. Chiasson plans to circulate the petition to all coastal communities, as well as Labrador City and Churchill Falls.

editor@thelabradorian.ca