WINNIPEG – No date has been set for the resumption of STARS air ambulance service in Manitoba.
Health Minister Erin Selby announced Dec. 2 that Shock Trauma Air Rescue Service was suspended following the death of a patient on Nov. 28.
STARS said in December they expected to be back in the air in January.
However, it could be some time before that happens, Global News has learned.
“Manitoba Health continues to work with STARS to return to service as quickly as we can,” a provincial spokesperson said. “We know that helicopter EMS service is a vital component of Manitoba’s EMS service.”
STARS would have been dispatched to 17 calls if its services hadn’t been suspended, the spokesperson said, and all of those incidents were responded to by land ambulances at comparable times.
It appeared the patient who died Nov. 28 wasn’t given sufficient oxygen, the province said. It was the third critical incident for the air ambulance in 2013.
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