Liberal Opposition Leader and MHA for the District of Cartwright L’Anse au Clair, Yvonne Jones, says comments made by an Eastern Health official regarding the medevac of a five-year-old child from the Central Region on July 8^th does not address the service gap that clearly occurred.

In media reports last week, Cory Banks, Divisional Manager for Paramedic and Medical Transport, claimed that there was no confusion over which medical team would handle the airlift. The family and Jones say the facts speak for themselves.

"We know that air ambulance services were contacted at 3:30 pm. The child’s family was informed there was uncertainty about whether a team would be dispatched from the Janeway or the air ambulance services," explains Jones. "By 4:30, it was determined that no air ambulance service personnel could be made available."

"One of the central questions that Eastern Health has failed to clarify for us is why air search and rescue were not contacted until 5:37 pm, some two hours after the medevac was originally ordered." Banks told media sources that Air Search and Rescue responded in record time, considering they have a launch window of 2 hours.

"We have also confirmed that the Commander was basically out of service on July 8 because it was undergoing maintenance. It certainly appears that Eastern Health has no protocol in place for dealing with a situation whereby maintenance is being carried out on their aircraft and cannot respond to an emergency. This is not acceptable and a review needs to be carried out.

"The bottom line is that there was a significant gap in service by air ambulance. Rather than trying to deflect responsibility, Eastern Health and this government should ensure that the proper protocol is in place and followed. A four-hour wait time when a child is in a coma is not "phenomenal" response time according to anyone’s standards."