Air ambulance service in St. Anthony must be strengthened

The air ambulance service in St. Anthony must be enhanced to ensure a strong and reliable service for the people of the province, a message the Minister of Health doesn’t seem to understand, says Marshall Dean, MHA for the Straits-White Bay North.

Dean recently met with the CEO of Labrador-Grenfell Health to formally request a trauma team for the St. Anthony air ambulance operation. With such a team in place, response times to emergencies would be improved and health care delivery would be enhanced for people living outside St. John’s. Recent requests in the House of Assembly have received no response from Health and Community Services Minister Jerome Kennedy.

“I am very disappointed that the minister has so far been unwilling to provide a commitment to establish a trauma team for the air ambulance in St. Anthony,” said Mr. Dean. “We have seen many delays in recent months directly as a result of the lack of a trauma team being available. Unfortunately, these delays are caused when the air ambulance has to travel to St. John’s, pick up the necessary health professionals and travel back over the same flight path to pick up the patient. With a permanent trauma team in place in St. Anthony, these unnecessary delays would be eliminated.

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