Re: Air Medical Transport Research Paper

[Ken Lawson-Williams <Macgyver@FlightMedicMail.com>]

RE: Inapripriate use of Air Medical Transport

IMHO probably 70% of the trips I do (fixed wing) at current service in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, Canada. Approx 2000 flights using 7 King Airs, a J-31, a Lear 25 and occasional Twin Otters from 6 bases and 6 carrriers, population 60,000. Approx 50% in last two services I flew for(Ft. McMurray and Peace River, Alberta, Canada).

Most common argument is (here) not enough staff to watch the patient until the next scheduled commercial flight (no roads, BE-B200 average 1-way flight almost 2 hours) and even then, no available staff to escort the patient - they could be away from work 2 to 5 days depending on the community, weather and flight schedule.

In Alberta (2 BK-117, 11 King-Airs and a J-31 between 10 services and 12 bases, 8000+ flights annually, 2.5 million population), most common reason is cheaper by air (for the sending hospital, as the Provincial government pays for flights, the hospital only has to pay for ground transfers). Next most common reason is extended ground trip times - 3 to 5 hours - taking scarce ALS resources away from smaller communities.

Hope this is of some help.
KLW


>I'm not sure I can help you out in a way that will truly be useful.
>The polls on FlightWeb, first of all, cannot be limited to specific
>populations such as helicopter transport personnel. The visitor
>demographic to the FlightWeb site is much broader than that and
>includes helicopter and fixed-wing personnel, as well as non-flying
>EMS, hospital staff and laypeople. My recommendation is to go ahead
>and subscribe to the Flightmed mailing list and post your survey
>there. Not only will you get a number of responses, you will probably
>generate some intersting discussions.

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