(File Photo/paNOW Staff)

By Jaryn Vecchio

Paramedic Services

New automated gate being constructed at P.A. airport for ambulances

May 17, 2023 | 1:00 PM

The city of Prince Albert is putting an automated gate at the airport to allow paramedics easier access to the runway.

P.A.’s council met on Monday where they approved increasing the project’s budget to $27,500 after getting $10,000 from the province through the Community Airports Partnership (CAP) program.

There is currently a gate that paramedics can manually open to get onto the tarmac, however, it’s locked by a padlock and has two doors that need to be swung open, costing valuable time during emergency situations.

On average, there are around two medevac transfers a day at the airport. Mayor Greg Dionne told paNOW he expects that number to increase once the Victoria Hospital’s expansion project is complete.

“A lot of the patients that come out by air ambulance, instead of flying over P.A. they’ll be landing in P.A.,” he said.

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While P.A.’s hospital is one of the biggest in the province, it doesn’t have a lot of the same technology as the ones in Saskatoon and Regina do.

When construction is officially done, it will have a larger emergency room, a new acute care tower, an MRI machine, and more. This is why Dionne believes the Victoria Hospital will soon be the main hub for medevac services for the northern part of the province.

“It’ll be quicker here than going to Saskatoon,” he said.

In an email, Parkland Ambulance spokesperson Lyle Karasiuk noted they fully support this project as it’ll give their paramedics much easier access to the airport.

Meanwhile, $10,000 for the project will come from the airport improvement fund and the remaining $2,500 from the airport’s operating budget, which already includes $20,000 for maintenance and fence repair.

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Jaryn.Vecchio@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter: @princealbertnow