This year marks an important anniversary in the history of medical evaluation in the north.
Rise Air will celebrate its 30th anniversary of undertaking medevac flights from all over the northern region of the province.
Dan Gold is the director of Marketing and Stakeholder Relations for Rise Air. In an interview with the Northern Advocate, Gold says medevac is a necessary service given the wide geography of Saskatchewan.
“I think that one of the most important things to bear in mind is that no one wants to be transferred by ambulance or by medevac. But ultimately, it’s a service that is there when people need it. The footprint we’ve operated across those 30 years is all the way from up in Uranium City in the very north bringing people down to Saskatoon, Regina or wherever that treatment is that person needs. I think the biggest lesson is listening and knowing how important that relationship is between the medic and flight crew so that the experience is as comfortable as possible for the person who has the most need.”
Gold adds that without Medevac, it could take a patient several hours to reach the care they would need due to several factors such as weather and roads.
“From our perspective, Rise Air is owned by the communities that we serve, and with medevac, we serve many more communities. Someone who might be living in Prince Albert or Saskatoon, they’re no more than twenty minutes from receiving treatment. The significant difference is that you could maybe be fourteen hours on a road transfer (in the north), where an aircraft will be doing that in two hours. The only way for transferring patients from the far north down to treatment is via an air service. We’re very proud to have contributed to the delivery of patient healthcare, really putting patients first.”
Rise Air is certified by the Canadian Council for Indigenous Business (CCIB) as an Indigenous owned business. They partner with La Ronge EMS who provide medics for the Medevac flights to care for the patients while in transit.
“I think that it’s important for us to recognize that over the last thirty years, a lot of people have contributed to getting patients the treatment that they need. We recognize all of the aircraft maintenance engineers that have ever worked on one of these aircraft. We recognize all the flight crews, all of the medics who’ve been there for their patients. We want to recognize every patient that has received care and got better as a result of this service existing. We want to recognize La Ronge EMS for their partnership with us in providing the medics for our flights.”
editorial@paherald.sk.ca
