An advocacy group aimed at stopping the closure of the Edmonton City Centre Airport (ECCA) launched its Get Out the Facts campaign at the Lac La Biche and District Chamber of Commerce meeting last Thursday.
Envision Edmonton board members and local doctor Richard Birkill spoke about the grave repercussions that would occur should med-evac flights be relocated from the ECCA to the Edmonton International Airport. The speakers explained in detail the results from a Health Quality Council of Alberta report, that was commissioned by Premier Ed Stelmach last fall to identify the implications of moving med-evacs to the EIA.
Dr. Kerry Pawluski from Envision Edmonton said 4,500 med-evacs occurred in 2010, with 3,500 from within province boundaries. He said 20 per cent of those cases were critical, meaning that 700 lives directly depended on efficient and timely transportation—something that would be compromised should the ECCA close. "Urgent medical care is really on the thin edge of the slice, hopefully nobody in this room will be in need of such services,” he said.
According to Ed Schlemko, director of flight operations for Airco Aircraft Charters, Alberta is going from one of the best med-evac transportation times to one of the worst in the country. The health quality report states that if the international airport serves as the primary air medical airport, transportation times to one of the hospitals would go from under 15 minutes to over a half an hour.
The report also states that the busier traffic at EIA, means that Medevac flights may have to wait in a queue before they can land.
Pawluski said physicians from cardiologists to obstetricians have contacted politicians to reconsider the airports closure, but have made no progress.
Schlemko said once EIA is the primary airport, Calgary will be the alternate, which means patients may not be able to receive the care they need. He said that Calgary does not have all of the services offered in the province ’s capital like neo-natal surgery and major organ transplants.
He also said the longer distance to the Calgary airport would pose as a problem for the northern territories as longer distances means mandatory refuelling, which would cause delays on top of the 45 minutes travel time.
Dr. Birkill also added that when he sends a med-evac to Edmonton, he must arrange for an ICU placement for the patient. He said having an alternate airport in a different city causes problems, as the chances of getting an ICU bed in both Calgary and Edmonton would be low.
"The logistics of having an alternate airport in another city becomes ludicrous. We are really dependant on services in Edmonton for our patients,” he said, adding that Lac La Biche has few medical resources, with no specialists or catscan equipment.
Envision Edmonton urged LLB county councillors, local medical staff and meeting attendees to contact provincial and federal politicians and voice their objection to the airport ’s closure.
The health quality report stated the city council of Edmonton approved the partial closure of the city centre airport in July 2009, leaving only one runway open. As of Aug. 3, 2010, the runway was closed and the city has selected Vancouver-based firm Perkins + Will to redevelop the ECCA ’s landscape into a "transit-oriented and environmentally sustainable residential community,” according to an Edmonton Economic Development Corporation press release.
View the HQCA report at: http://bit.ly/lYAamy.
