Special Transportation Air Recovery Shuttle (STARS)

Rob Bernshaw
Jan 25 2013 Edmonton City Centre Airport (Alberta Air Ambulance recently arrived) and Ground Ambulance picking up patient from northern Alberta

Rob Bernshaw, Columnist

With the recent announcement of our current Alberta health minister Mr. Fred Horne, will that be the new designation of  Shock Trauma Air Rescue Service (S.T.A.R.S ) a very important medical service that compliments Alberta Air Ambulance Service(Medevac) in the province of Alberta?

Is our government living in a dream world when it comes to delivering quality timely health care to all Albertans?

When will this government step up to the plate and do the job that they were voted into office for and that is to act as our representatives in the daily running of this great province. When will common sense take over from the misinformation that has been constantly spewing from the government P.R machine.


Not only will this recent announcement by our esteemed government lower the value of health care to rural areas it will also lower the value and timely service that S.T.A.R.S is currently providing.

With that in mind the new lower case acronym is provided as the service designation for the newly lowered value shuttle service( s.t.a.r.s.) There are issues regarding this newly designated shuttle service role one of them being, rotary wing aircraft are not able to operate under the same conditions fixed wing medevac services are able to fly in. Also in order to provide the needed shuttle service how many more specially fitted helicopters and the staff to operate them will have to be bought at a more expensive cost to us taxpayer?.

Helicopters also cost more to maintain than fixed wing aircraft.

Another point that has been raised is to use the airport in Villeneuve as an alternate to the airport in Leduc for Medevac flights during bad weather. From one bad condition to another,where is the sense in that solution? The airport in Villeneuve is not even set up to handle Medevac flights and this was touted as the alternate to the airport in Leduc. Give us a break from more cost and expense that will be needed to bring this airport in Villeneuve up to the service standards needed to support medevac flights in the first place. There is also the time and distance from Villeneuve to Edmonton by ground ambulance which is similar in distance to the airport in Leduc and Edmonton. No time saved there.

Not only the cost to upgrade the airport in Villeneuve another costly issue needs to be addressed. What will the cost be to provide a rotary wing S.T.A.R.S. base at Villeneuve for bad weather days when they are not able to fly anyways?

All at a time when this government has repeatedly said that belt tightening is the order of the day.

This government needs to give their collective heads a shake and look at this situation in a realistic and cost effective manner not give knee jerk responses to the push back being felt from very concerned Albertans across this great province. So not only is this government bound and determined to ignore their due diligence in looking after the health care needs of all Albertans they are also ignoring the high cost involved of moving the medevac services from the best and most cost effective solution possible (Edmonton City Centre Airport) to the worst and most cost prohibitive solution possible(the airports in Leduc and Villeneuve). They are also changing the mandate of  rotary wing S.T.A.R.S. from a rescue service complimenting fixed wing medevac flights to a lowly shuttle service. Was that done with consulting the  S.T.A.R.S management team?

Where is the common sense in that move?

This government is raising concerns about lowered revenues due to our resource based economy and yet see no problem in throwing the health of Albertans that depend on the Alberta Air Ambulance Service out with the bath water all for the benefit of political expediency over the benefit to Albertans and their health care needs.

This is the reality of living in Alberta of 2013 and the current government voted in April of 2012. Another 3 years of political expediency over common sense and value that all of us Albertans desire and deserve.

For further factual information from the doctors mouths to our ears please check out the following website:  http://saveourmedevac.ca/

There is a link in the above website to write emails to the government of Alberta expressing your concerns about the costly move intended and in the process losing valuable time and service for rural areas that depend heavily on the fixed wing Alberta Air Ambulance service provided into and out of the Edmonton City Centre Airport. (info@saveourmedevac.ca)

People power has an effect on the outcome and one voice raised loudly enough will allow others to hear and raise their voice in the process.

This government has said in December 2012 that the medevac would move and it has not. This government then said it would move in February 2013 and has now moved it to March 2013. There are reasons that this has not happened and that is because the recommendations from the Health Quality Council Report has not been fully implemented. There is a cost involved in implementing these life saving recommendations and if this government was true to their word of belt tightening then there would be no talk of moving a vital service that is very cost efficient at it’s current location of the Edmonton City Centre Airport providing the needed timely access to very important state of the art tertiary care facilities available at the Royal Alex and University of Alberta Hospitals.

One more thing in closing in case anyone is thinking of bringing it up. In order to outfit and upgrade hospitals across Alberta including Leduc or St. Albert to the same state of the art tertiary care facilities that the Royal Alex and University of Alberta Hospitals have is a cost prohibitive measure and is not an overnight measure that can be implemented at the drop of a hat. The most cost effective move providing timely access to these state of the art tertiary care facilities is to leave Alberta Air Ambulance services at the Edmonton City Centre Airport operating as efficiently for rural areas as it has always done.

Quote:
All  that's necessary for the forces of evil to win in the world is for enough good  men to do nothing.    ~Edmond Burke(Irish Statesman 1729-1797)

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