Over 30,000 people called in to the provincial government's teleconference town hall meeting regarding northern Alberta's medevac services on Feb. 26.
The teleconference not only served as a venue for the public to ask questions of the government regarding upcoming changes to the service, including moving medevac services from Edmonton's City Centre Airport to the city's International Airport, it also acted as a platform for the government to clarify recent comments made about the service changes.
Municipal Affairs Minister Doug Griffiths said the government respects the rights of all landowners, including municipalities, to make decisions regarding the use of their land, which in this case dictated changes to medevac services.
Griffiths also noted the government would no longer be flying its planes in the City Centre Airport.
“The city (of Edmonton) has made a decision after a tremendous amount of debate over many years to close the City Centre Airport,” explained Griffiths. “So as we move the medevac services based on that decision, we will also be moving our fleet of aircrafts to the International Airport at the same time that the medevac flights will be moving.”
Griffiths said the question that often arises is whether the government has the ability to expropriate the land to keep the landing strips open.
“According to the Expropriation Act, we do,” he said. “However, it would have to go through a mediation board and fair compensation would have to be paid if we do. (Edmonton) City Council has assessed the land at $2 billion, with other assessments being in the range of two or three times that.
“It would be a long, costly and arduous process and I am not sure that it would necessarily guarantee better healthcare or that that's the solution to dealing with medevac services in the north.”
Minister of Health and Wellness Fred Horne said the Health Quality Council of Alberta, an independent body, has reviewed the planned medevac changes.
“The council concluded that we could successfully move medevac to the Internation Airport without any compromise to patient safety or quality of health care services that we deliver,” explained Horne.
The council included 18 recommendations in its report, most of which have been implemented by Alberta Health Services (AHS) at this point, according to Horne.
He also pointed out that the majority of medevac patients are not in emergency situations.
“The data from AHS tells us that about 80 per cent of patients using medevac in Northern Alberta do so for scheduled procedures and surgeries or for admission to a higher level of care, not for emergencies.”
Horne said, “There is absolutely no change in the process” for patients needing emergency care from trauma or accidents.
“The majority of those are dispatched using helicopter aircraft and sent directly to our two trauma centres in Edmonton”
Horne added that in 2012, AHS indicated fewer than five patients per month were “truly time sensitive.”
