A $561.7 million dollar contract awarded to Medavie for the integration of ground and air ambulance services across the province includes the development of medical air transfer services in Gander, but how that will look, and what resources will be needed, is up to the contractor to determine.
The provincial government provided the update yesterday in St. Anthony.
The ten-year contract includes the management of clinical staff and service delivery, emergency call dispatch services as well as routine medical and non-medical transfers.
For years, the town council and others have been calling for air ambulance services to be based in Gander, rather than St. John’s. The contract includes medical air transfers based in Gander. It also calls for Medavie to report how aviation services can be improved, and include the use of Gander in the overall plan.
Health Minister Krista Lynn Howell says the rest is up to Medavie.
“That will be part of the whole process of determining what’s most appropriate here” says Howell. She calls Medavie “the specialist in these areas. They’ll look at the assets that currently exist, and they’ll use the best evidence to determine what resources are required where and implement it accordingly.”
Howell does say that it’s likely that more resources will be required, including helicopters.
