Northern Alberta politicians tour new medevac service at Edmonton International Airport

 EDMONTON – The new air ambulance base at the Edmonton International Airport will open Friday, ending medevac service to the City Centre Airport.

The 3,600-square-metre hangar was open for tours to almost 200 people Wednesday, as the contentious decision to move the service continues to prompt debate among politicians, community and business leaders from outside Edmonton.

Media from Grande Prairie and Fort McMurray were among those flown to Edmonton for a tour of the facility. At least 13 MLAs, mainly from northern ridings, were at the event, along with mayors and councillors from northern communities.

Health Minister Fred Horne and Municipal Affairs Minister Doug Griffiths told the crowd that patient health and safety were at the heart of the decision to move the service to the international airport

“It’s the service and personnel that are critical, not the location of the airport,” Griffiths said.

Horne said it was important to have people tour the facility so they could ask direct questions of staff that will be running the facility. He acknowledged there continues to be speculation about how well patients will be served at a facility that is further from major hospitals than the City Centre Airport. He said he hoped tours of the facility and questions with staff would serve as “a bit of a reality check, if you will.”

Two weeks ago, 36 northern Alberta doctors issued an open letter, warning there would be “fatal consequences” if the province proceeded with plans to reroute medevac flights to the international airport.

“For the critically ill and injured people of the north, the extra transport time will result in needless deaths and disability,” said the letter, signed by doctors from Grande Prairie, Lac La Biche, Fort McMurray, Peace River and Edmonton.

“Moving the medevacs … is unnecessary, costly, and will have fatal consequences.”

However, Horne said the service at the new facility will be enhanced with most patient transfers done inside the hangar, inside of on the tarmac as is the current procedure at the City Centre Airport. An additional EMS paramedic will now also accompany critical patients to area hospitals.