By Leah Murray

AHS announces new fixed wing air ambulance contractor for the Hat

Nov 20, 2017 | 8:10 PM

MEDICINE HAT – Alberta Health Services submitted a letter to the City of Medicine Hat regarding fixed wing air ambulance service in the city.

The letter, dated November 1st 2017, confirms that CanWest Air has been selected by AHS to provide the service long term.

The company will also operate out of other municipalities across the province, with 11 fixed-wing resources in the same ten base communities.

AHS said CanWest has managed to secure necessary hangar space at the Medicine Hat regional Airport and is expecting to be operational by April 1, 2018.

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The hangar space won’t be available until that time, so the province has issued a contract extension for temporary air ambulance service through Integra Air.

Some members of City Council expressed their disappointment about AHS’s decision at Monday night’s council meeting.

Councillor Julie Friesen said she would have liked to have seen the province stick with Integra air for local service.

Mayor Ted Clugston echoed those statements, but says the city can’t and won’t stand in the way.

“They have every right to be here because they were awarded the contract,” said Clugston. “But, I still am really going to be interested to see how they’re going to have a hangar by April first.”

“In the letter, AHS, they don’t verify [where it will be] they just said the contractor has guaranteed us they will have a hangar and his word is good. So, we’ll see what happens come April first.”

AHS said the new agreement with CanWest Air will provide for additional patient support through scheduled low risk transfers, dedicated urgent response aircraft, specialized bariatric aircraft for larger patients and new and improved planes that can better accommodate patients, equipment and specialty teams for neonatal and pediatric transfers.

It’s unclear at this time where CanWest found hangar space.

AHS also said it continues to look into alternatives for fixed wing medivac service during the airport runway shutdown, from May 7th to May 10th, 2018.

“Patient care is the focus of every decision we make,” said Darren Sandbeck, senior provincial director and chief Paramedic for EMS. “We are working with our community partners to develop a plan that will maintain air ambulance support to the region during the closure.”