New patient transport system to go to northern communities

paNOW Staff

Two northern communities can look forward to new ways of transporting medical patients to the airport.
The Mamawetan Churchill River Health Region is looking to purchase two so-called horizontal transport vehicles for the communities of Sandy Bay and Pinehouse. These used ambulances will likely be purchased as a retired vehicle from an ambulance service’s fleet.
“So what these are is vehicles we use to move patients form the clinic, generally, to the airport,” said Kathy Chisholm, CEO of the region.
“We’re looking at several thousand dollars, they’re not hugely expensive.”
Once they are purchased there will be some modifications made from the vehicles previous life as first response ambulances.
“The bells and whistles, the sirens, lights and things like that are disabled,” Chisholm said.
Currently, these two communities have clinics with primary care nursing staff, but no ambulance services.
When patients need to be flown out of the community, for further medical attention, there needs to be a way to transport them to the airport.
Pinehouse currently has a used ambulance, but it is nearing the end of its life, said Chisholm.
In Sandy Bay, they are using another enclosed vehicle, which isn’t an ambulance. It will be the first of the two to be replaced, she said.
“It’s another piece of patient safety, to ensure we are transporting people in a safe manner from the clinic out to the airport,” she said.
The region is waiting for capital approval from the Ministry of Health before going forward to purchase the vehicles.

ahill@paNOW.com