Darrell Greer
Northern News Services

RANKIN INLET (Nov 24/99) - Speed of transport can often be the difference between life and death during emergency medical situations in the North.

The Kivalliq Region's available emergency medical transportation doubled earlier this month with Skyward Aviation Ltd.'s announcement of its new SkyCare Air Ambulance base in Rankin Inlet.

Skyward vice-president David Dunseath says the move was something his company has been looking at for some time.

He says the needs of the Kivalliq Region warrant two carriers.

"There are no contracts in place between the current carrier and the Keewatin Regional Health Board, so we thought this is a good time to go out there and show our stuff," says Dunseath.

Skyward has been operating in Rankin since 1993. Its new ambulance service has a King Air 200 equipped with a two-patient Lifeport system.

The aircraft is equipped with ACLS drugs, Lifepak 10 cardiac monitor and defibrillator, NIBP monitors and numerous other emergency bags and equipment.

The crew consists of two pilots and a fully-qualified lead flight nurse.

Dunseath says his company's new service benefits the region because the more access you have, the better health care ultimately is.

"With the limited resources in the North, you need to move people to a regional facility. That's just a fact of life here.

"The quicker you can get them to qualified health care in order to get what they need looked after, the better.

"By having another carrier available, if one carrier's busy, the other can pick up the slack."

Skyward had been doing medevacs in the Kivalliq for the past several years on a back-up basis.

Dunseath says competition keeps people sharp and the end benefactor is always the customer.

"When you have competition, you're going to be a little more on the ball in ensuring what you have on your airplane is state-of-the-art.

"You want to be able to sell your service so you get the call.

"So, you'll have the best possible equipment and qualified people on the airplane and everybody benefits from that."