New N.W.T. medevac contract promises newer planes, faster responses
Guy Quenneville | CBC News | Posted: January 15, 2015 1:30 PM | Last Updated: January 15, 2015
Air Tindi to reduce maximum response time to smaller communities to 2 hours from 4 hours
The new eight-year medevac contract recently awarded to two companies by the Northwest Territories government will pay almost double the amount paid by the current contract, which was held by the same companies.
The new contract will also allow Air Tindi and its supplier of on-board medics, Advanced Medical Solutions, to make some important upgrades to their medevac service, according to the airline.
"There's a lot of things that are probably happening in the background that the patient might not see," says Alasdair Martin, the president of Yellowknife-based Air Tindi.
"But the overall package allows us to give a much more flexible and improved service in general."
The current six-year contracts for each company, which expire on March 31, are paying the companies a combined $12 million per year. When the new contract covering both companies takes effect on Apr. 1, it will pay the companies a combined $17.5 million a year.
Martin says the extra money will help pay for a number of changes, including Air Tindi's acquisition of four newer King Airs, which are used for the majority of medevac flights in the territory. Those planes will either be new or eight to 10 years old, compared to the 23-year-old King Airs currently used by the company.
New response time guarantee
In 2013, the territorial government investigated an incident in which it took an Air Tindi Twin Otter five hours to respond to a medical emergency in Trout Lake.
The new contract calls for a faster maximum response time for flights to communities that can only accommodate Twin Otters or helicopters: to two hours from four hours.
"Beyond that, there's an increase in staff, particularly on the medical side, to make sure we always have fresh medics available for every call put out," says Martin.
Martin says Air Tindi will refurbish one hangar at its base in Inuvik and one hangar at its base in Yellowknife to serve as dedicated medevac hangars. The change will mean patients won't be loaded onto planes on the tarmac.
"[The transfer] would be inside. The aircraft would be warm," says Martin.
Other upgrades called for in the new contract include:
- at least one King Air equipped with a door wide enough to accommodate obese patients
- planes with two stretchers, instead of just one, which would allow pilots to pick up more than one patient during a single trip
The territorial government won't disclose what rival bids three other companies — 506710 NWT Ltd., Keewatin Air and Summit Air — submitted for the same contract, saying such proposals are confidential.