With the redevelopment of Cariboo Memorial Hospital fully underway, local politicians are once again asking Interior Health to consider installing a helipad, suggesting a nearby school field as a possible location.
Mayor Surinderpal Rathor said the city knows a helipad at the hospital is not going to happen, but maybe there could be one at Williams Lake Secondary School.
“I’ve requested the ministry of health and the ministry of education to work together to see if we can find a way to have a helipad at the school, it could be in the field,” Rathor said. “There is a helipad at the airport, and a private one on Murray Drive off Mackenzie.”
Rathor said he is confident the School District 27 board and teachers would understand that besides education, a “lifeline is equally important.”
“It could be once in a year, 10 times in a year or it could be never in a year that a helipad would be needed at the school. Who knows?”
Rathor brought the request to the Cariboo Chilcotin Regional Hospital District (CCHRD) and during its regular meeting Friday, May 2, the board voted in favour of writing a letter to the Ministry of Health. A delegation from Interior Health and BC Emergency Health Services appeared virtually during the board meeting to discuss the request.
CCHRD chair Al Richmond said statistics shared with the CCHRD indicate there isn’t a need for a helipad in Williams Lake.
“From the ambulance services’ point of view it’s not warranted for the number of times that it’s needed and that the fixed wing is more reliable at the airport in Williams Lake,” Richmond said. “They said the numbers don’t justify the expense to put it in and that’s why they deleted it from the original cost of the hospital reconstruction.”
Richmond said the board heard the number of times a helicopter is required to take a patient from Cariboo Memorial Hospital is not very often.
Most of the time, if a helicopter lands on the highway at a serious accident and a patient needs care from a higher level hospital, the patient is then flown directly to the hospital, he explained.
“We had the school bus incident north of Lac La Hache a year ago. The helicopters landed and took the injured that required that type of treatment directly to Kamloops, which is much quicker.”
Richmond said the board voted to direct the CCHRD to write a letter about the possibility of using the school field.
“I know they have landed there in the past a long time ago and in a dire emergency probably could again, but it’s not a designated landing pad," Richmond said.
Interior Health responded to the Tribune by email saying IH's priority is to get patients from Williams Lake and the surrounding area the right care in the right place as quickly as possible and that includes options for transporting patients to alternate locations based on their care needs.
"Although initial discussions related to the CMH redevelopment considered including a helipad, it was determined due to the limited number of patient transports to CMH that a helipad wasn’t ideal for patient flow and care. Additionally, fixed wing is able to fly in more variable conditions, faster and can transport patients longer distances than a helicopter. Rotary can only fly when weather conditions are favourable," noted the response.
Currently, IH partners with BC Emergency Health Services (BCEHS) to access patient transport resources, including fixed wing (plane) and rotary wing (helicopter) resources – currently these are accessed at the airport and available through prioritization across the province.
In Williams Lake, fixed wing aircrafts are predominantly used to support patients transferring from CMH to tertiary care hospitals for higher level of care, such as Royal Inland Hospital or Kelowna General Hospital, or hospitals in the Lower Mainland. Helicopters are more likely to respond from the scene of an accident and bring people who need critical care directly to those larger centres, bypassing CMH, IH noted.
"In the rare case that a rotary wing is used by BCEHS to provide emergency services, and the patient needs urgent emergency care at CMH, the current process is for BCEHS aircraft to land at the airport (12 minutes from CMH) as appropriate.
IH confirmed it will continue to evaluate the transportation needs for Cariboo Memorial Hospital as IH invests in updates to the local hospital and services.
