According to Alberta Health Minister Fred Horne, moving from the Edmonton City Centre Airport to the Edmonton International Airport (EIA) for Medevac flights is inevitable, but, in order to help alleviate concern over travel time, a triage unit will be added to the EIA to help deal with the influx of northern Medevac fights, including those from the Lac La Biche area.
“We were told at the recent AAMDC (Alberta Association of Municipal Districts and Counties) conference that a triage unit would be included at the EIA to help with the Medevac flights, and although this isn’t our first choice, it does seem like the Minister was willing to listen to our concerns,” said Lac La Biche County mayor Aurel Langevin.
Lac La Biche councillors have been instrumental in creating one of the several campaigns intent on fighting for a better situation for northern Medevac flights.
With the imminent closure of the Edmonton City Centre Airport, the province has made it official that all northern Medevac flights will be re-routed to EIA, instead of alternate airport options like Villeneuve or Namao.
“At the end of the day, it’s happening despite our best intentions to get an alternate decision,” said Ward 7 councillor John Nowak, who served as the spokesperson for Lac La Biche County to Horne. Nowak relayed important information and statistics regarding the transfer times from EIA to the Royal Alexandra or University of Alberta (U of A) hospitals. Statistics show that transfer times are expected to be more than double the amount of time they were from the City Centre Airport, and the closure is expected to lower the northern Medevac response time from the very best in Canada to the absolute worst.
During the meeting, Minister Horne brought forward the notion that a triage unit would be added to the EIA to help aid in the response time, allowing some patients to be immediately treated at the airport, and the serious cases to be airlifted via helicopter to the Royal Alexandra or U of A hospitals.
“The outcome doesn’t solve the problem completely, but it does seem like an amicable compromise to our current situation,” Langevin said, adding that Horne also approached the subject of adding another healthcare facility in the southern region of Edmonton, but any final decisions on that matter would take a long time to materialize.
HEALTHCARE CENTRE TO GET NEW EQUIPMENT?
The other side of this discussion with the provincial health boss revolved around the possibility of adding important diagnostic machines to the William J. Cadzow Hospital in order to limit the amount of Medevac flights.
“We went to Minister Horne with a two-pronged strategy–we wanted to let our issues with EIA be known, but also attempt to begin discussions surrounding the purchase of more equipment for our hospital,” Langevin said, explaining that better equipment will not only keep patients in Lac La Biche, but it will also help attract new staff to rural areas. He is aware that this equipment won’t necessarily stop Medevac from flying Code Red patients into EIA, but he is hoping that with more equipment here the hospital can retain more physicians and keep them here.
“We’re currently in the formative phase of creating a Regional Health Foundation that will help fund the purchase of more diagnostic equipment for the hospital,” he said.
