MedicAir looking for stability in 2010
Andrea Klassen Medicine Hat News
After a rocky 2009, MedicAir executive director Hugh English says the society hopes this year will be more stable.
Last fall, a lack of funding threatened to ground MedicAir’s rescue helicopter service, which has an operating budget of about $850,000 a year and is funded entirely by donations.
English says if HALO (Helicopter Air Lift Operation) had been forced to shut down, it would have left the province’s southeast corner — approximately the boundaries of the old Palliser Health Region — without access to a rescue helicopter.
While Calgary-based STARS Air Ambulance provides rescue helicopter services throughout the province, English says the lengthy commute from Calgary — which
can include refueling stops in Brooks — makes the service less effective in Alberta’s southeast corner.
“The reality for Southeastern Alberta is, past Tilley, it's just beyond responding in a timely manner,” English says. “If HALO doesn't exist, the reality is we don't have what other Albertans have.”
However, after the MedicAir society announced it might have to ground the helicopter in fall 2009, a number of area businesses and service groups stepped up to fundraise for the cause and managed to keep the helicopter flying.
"We were very buoyed by the response we got from the public and corporations,” says English. This year, he adds, MedicAir will try to keep that fundraising momentum going, and tap into new sources of revenue. “Because it isn't just a matter of mothballing HALO for a few months and starting over.”
The society is currently making presentations to local municipalities and companies, and hopes to illustrate the benefit of having emergency helicopter services in the region.
English says businesses interested in setting up shop in the southeast corner may be more willing to come to the area if there’s a service like HALO in place — and may also see the benefit of donating to the society.
The MedicAir Society, which has offered fixed-wing air ambulance services to Calgary since 1975, acquired its rescue helicopter in July, 2007. To date, HALO has flown 66 missions in the region, which encompasses communities as far away as Acadia Valley and Leader, Saskatchewan.
In addition to transporting patients out of remote, difficult to access areas, the helicopter can also take extra emergency response personnel to areas with few staff of their own, or where on-site care is top priority.
Photos Courtesy of MedicAir
In the fall of 2009, the MedicAIr Society announced it would have to ground HALO if more funds could not be generated. Area businesses and service groups stepped up financially allowing the helicopter to remain in the air. HALO services the southeast corner of the province and has flown 66 mission since first taking flight.
Hugh English - Executive director of MedicAir
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