Two Island-based air ambulances have been added to the fleet serving rural, remote and Indigenous communities on Vancouver Island, the Gulf Islands and the Sunshine Coast.
The two, a fixed-wing plane based in Nanaimo and a helicopter in Parksville, entered service in mid-November. Prior to that, B.C. Emergency Health Services relied on its Vancouver-based aircraft or ones flown by Island-based contractors.
Five aircraft have also been added on the mainland. The additions bring the emergency service’s fleet to 16 aircraft — six helicopters and 10 planes.
“Although we replace aircraft in our fleet regularly, this is the largest increase in the size of our fleet in many years,” said Shannon Miller, communications officer with the service. “While we may have utilized aircraft on a contract basis in past years, these are the first dedicated air ambulances stationed on Vancouver Island.”
Alkan Air has been contracted to supply a turbo-prop plane. Ascent Helicopters will operate a specialized MD Helicopters MD 902, complete with night vision technology for poor light responses.
In addition to the aircraft, five critical-care paramedics are being added, doubling the number in the region.
The role of the air ambulances is to quickly transport patients in rural and remote communities to places with higher levels of care.
“A typical scenario will see a patient presenting at a smaller regional hospital,” said Miller. “The air ambulance will be called to transport them once it has been determined they would be better served in a larger centre, such as Vancouver or Victoria.”
Up to 90 per cent of air ambulance requests are to move patients from hospital to hospital.
Sometimes the decision to call in an air ambulance starts with information provided by 911 callers on the scene of an emergency.
“In specific medical emergencies we would autolaunch, simultaneously dispatching both ground and air ambulances to the scene,” Miller said. A common scenario would see a helicopter evacuate badly hurt people from a highway crash.
For residents of the Gulf Islands, which lack airports, the helicopter is the sole aircraft that can respond to their calls in the case of a medical emergency.
Even though the two aircraft have only been deployed since mid-November, they have been responding to two to three calls per day, said Miller.
In the last three weeks the helicopter recently landed on the Island Highway after a serious vehicle crash, airlifted a severely injured patient who fell from a roof around Qualicum and transferred a critically injured patient from the Nanaimo hospital to a Victoria hospital.
In addition to its fleet, B.C. Emergency Health Services also has more than 30 air carriers around the province on call should the need arise. Annually, it responds to more than 7,000 patients requiring transportation by air ambulance.
Funding for the aircraft came through a pandemic-response initiative involving the First Nations Health Authority, Northern Health and Provincial Health Services Authority.
As part of the initiative, B.C. Emergency Health Services acquired an additional 55 ground ambulances throughout the province.
