Haida Gwaii patients who need a medevac flight to the mainland will soon fly on new and better equipped planes.
BC Emergency Health Services (BCEHS) is replacing its existing fleet of air-ambulance planes with 12 new Beechcraft King Air 360CHWs. They will cost a total of $673 million over 10 years.
All the new planes can land on gravel runways. They are also designed for powered stretchers so patients will no longer need to be lifted from one stretcher to another during loading.
Inside, each of the new planes will have specialized medical equipment to provide the same level of care as an intensive-care hospital room. The equipment includes ECMO life-support machines, better incubators for transporting infant children, better equipment for supporting patients with obesity, and better isolation units for patients with certain infectious diseases.
The new planes will be stationed in the same cities as before, with two in Prince George, three in Vancouver, three in Kelowna, and one in Fort St. John. The remaining three planes will serve as back-ups.
Across B.C., about three-quarters of all medical air transfers last year were made by plane, with the remaining quarter done by helicopter.
BCEHS stations one helicopter each in Prince Rupert, Prince George, Nanaimo, and Kamloops, and two helicopters in Vancouver.
About 40% of all air ambulance transports last year were for patients in the Northern Health region, which includes Haida Gwaii.