New air ambulances are taking flight in B.C. - Link Newspaper

Source: The Link News Paper
Author: Team Link

RICHMOND - Patients requiring emergency travel for medical care will benefit from a new state-of-the-art fleet of air ambulance airplanes.

"When someone you love is critically ill or injured, they deserve the best and fastest care possible," said Premier David Eby. "Throughout this vast province, we are building new hospitals, cancer-care clinics and urgent primary care centres. By deploying new air ambulances, we are ensuring patients get the quality care they need quickly."

BC Emergency Health Services (BCEHS) is replacing its existing fleet with 12 new Beechcraft King Air 360CHW air ambulances. Nine of the airplanes will be in regular operation and three will be backups. The first of these new airplanes went into service on May 1, 2024. This is possible due to a provincial investment of $673 million over 10 years.

Air ambulances allow patients to be treated by highly trained paramedics while they are being transported. These airplanes are the fastest way to travel to a health-care facility, especially for patients in hard-to-reach areas. These aircraft are used both in emergency medical response and to transfer patients between health-care facilities.

The new aircrafts have several features that will benefit patients across the province, including the ability to land on gravel runways; expanded capabilities for specialized care; improved patient and paramedic safety through power stretcher compatibility; and uniform layout and design that will improve patient outcomes and expanded flight crews.

Air ambulances will remain stationed in their current locations with three airplanes each in Vancouver and Kelowna, two in Prince George and one in Fort St. John.

These new air ambulances build on historical progress to improve ambulance services for patients by adding more paramedics, adding more vehicles and updating fleets of vehicles used by paramedics.