After nearly two years, LifeFlight helicopters in Nova Scotia can finally land where they're supposed to: on the rooftops of hospitals.
“We're very, very happy to have reached this point and very happy that the aircraft are online,” says EHS LifeFlight program manager Colin Flynn.
The province was informed in March 2016 the old chopper wasn't certified to land on the roof of hospitals. The province then decided to buy choppers that were certified.
The two choppers were initially announced in January on a $105-million contract. They were supposed to be in service on Aug. 1 but that was delayed until October, then delayed again until December.
Their first flight was Dec. 15.
Health Minister Randy Delorey says the delays were due to getting Transport Canada certification and adding some suggestions from Lifeflight medics and crew.
“They were looking at opportunities to enhance the cabin space based on their feedback and discussions with the company,” says Delorey. “They agreed to make the enhancements. It would obviously take a little bit more time to enhance the cabin in that way.”
This is a 15-year contract that followed its initial price tag. There are between 700 and 800 calls for service a year, and because there are two choppers, EHS is hoping they can respond more often.
While the old LifeFlight chopper was in service over the past 20 months, EHS says they were “very aware” of the extra transport time because they couldn't land directly on the hospital roof.
“Fortunately our critical care teams were able to manage patients throughout those transport legs, but the ability to land directly at the rooftop and directly at that specialty service will mean multiple minutes in savings of time,” says Flynn. “Of course, minutes count when you're talking about the sickest of patients.”
Delorey says there shouldn’t be any more delays.
With files from CTV Atlantic’s Laura Brown.
