The addition of two helicopters to Saskatchewan’s emergency response system will improve medical services for people who live in rural and remote parts of the province, the government says.
The government announced in the Oct. 27 throne speech it will enter into a long-term lease with the Shock Trauma Air Rescue Service, better known as STARS, in Alberta.
One helicopter will be based in Regina and the other in Saskatoon. They will complement the existing air and ground ambulance system.
Rod Gantefoer, the MLA for Melfort and former finance minister, is heading up the project. He said it will likely be 14 to 16 months before the system is fully operational.
The helicopters must be integrated with the existing dispatch system.
He estimated the cost at about $18 million annually. The government will pay about $10 million of that initially and the private sector will pick up the rest.
Over time, Gantefoer said those costs should come down as more companies contribute.
Crescent Point Energy, which has about 200 employees working in the province, has already pledged $5 million over four years.
Gantefoer said the addition of the helicopters means more lives can be saved.
“For people that either live in or travel through rural Saskatchewan the quality of care in advanced trauma instances certainly is not as good as it could be,” he said.
In Alberta, STARS has flown about 20,000 missions in 25 years, he said.
Greg Powell, chief executive officer and founder of STARS, said the three Alberta helicopters respond to major trauma about half the time they are dispatched. The other 50 percent of cases include illnesses such as strokes, heart attacks and serious infection.
“If you look back over the last 25 years we’ve had the opportunity to provide shorter hospital stays and better outcomes for people, and also perhaps to reduce the cost of health care based on rehabilitation times,” he said.
Opposition leader Dwain Lingenfelter said the NDP is not opposed to the helicopters in principle but when his MLAs met with rural people last summer they were more concerned about other aspects of the health system, including wait lists and doctor shortages.
“They simply don’t have enough money to keep hospital beds open,” Lingenfelter said. “They can’t afford the ambulance service in many rural communities they have now.”
Other health-related initiatives announced by the Saskatchewan government included the creation of a health ombudsman position and 100 new long-term addictions recovery spaces.
The government had already announced it will spend $5 million on multiple sclerosis clinical trials of the liberation treatment.
