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SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Medevac flights bringing Yellowknife patients to Edmonton for treatment may be allowed to use a military landing strip that would shave valuable minutes off patient transfer time.

"It's all about the time, right? So if you have someone who is unstable or is critically ill, then your most vulnerable time is transport," said Dr. Dwayne Coad, an emergency room doctor at Stanton Territorial Hospital and a reservist medical doctor with the Northern military branch. "In a flight or in the back of an ambulance is not a great place to be if things are not going well."

Yesterday in the legislative assembly, NWT Health Minister Tom Beaulieu initially said his department has "no official role" in talks about using the Edmonton Garrison airstrip for medevacs.

However, after a barrage of questions from Yellowknife Centre MLA Robert Hawkins and Hay River South MLA Jane Groenewegen, Beaulieu changed his tune and said his department will now "take an active role" in the negotiations. There are about 350 medevac flights from the NWT that land in Edmonton every year, said Beaulieu.

In Alberta, Deputy Premier Doug Horner has raised the issue in his legislature.

"We want to make sure that we have the best service possible to accommodate patients coming in," said Horner. "Certainly on emergency services, absolutely. That's one of the main reasons why we want to make the right decisions today."

Discussions have been passed to Ottawa for negotiation. The Department of Defence is reviewing what potential impacts the medical flights using the runway would have on military operations, said Capt. Derrick Forsythe, public affairs officer at Canadian Forces Base Edmonton. The runway is not currently in use.

"The province (of Alberta) has had initial discussions, and it's gone to Ottawa," said Forsythe.

"We've built infrastructure in and around the air field since (the runway was closed), so there would be affects that we would have to mitigate or account for."

"Nothing we do can impair or impede the base ability of the base to do what it sets out to do - which is train soldiers," said Horner. "The final decision will be made by the military on whether it will impede their ability to operate.

Medevac flights are still landing at the downtown airport, however the city has already closed one of two runways, and is looking to make the land available for development.

The issue came to the deputy premier's attention because of a Health Quality Council of Alberta report that stated that if the downtown airport in Edmonton were to close, then an alternate landing area would be needed in case service to the international airport was interrupted.

Coad had not heard anything about the potential of a new arrangement with the Edmonton Garrison. However, he welcomed the idea.

"Anything that decreases that time period can only be better," said Coad.

It currently takes about two-and-a-half to three hours for a patient to travel from Stanton to hospital in Edmonton. Using the international airport in Edmonton adds between 30 and 40 minutes to that time, which is a concern for all territorial emergency room doctors, said Coad.

For the most part, when there are health emergencies in outlying NWT communities, the patients are first referred to Stanton, and then are either treated by a Yellowknife physician, referred immediately to a doctor in Edmonton, or are first brought to Yellowknife to be treated and then transported south, said Coad.

"If we have someone very sick at Stanton and we have to send them out, we send them to Edmonton," he said.

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