Medevac airport move would hurt patients: report

Moving medevac flights from Edmonton City Centre Airport to the international airport south of the city will put patient safety at risk, according to a new report from the Health Quality Council of Alberta.

The report released Thursday finds the move would transform hospital transport times in Edmonton from the shortest to the longest in the country.

"The point we're making is there's a huge potential for ... an adverse event occurring to a patient who is caught up in a delay,"council CEO Dr. John Cowell said at a news conference.

"Our report has identified that all this thinking hasn't been completed."

The report lists 18 recommendations to mitigate the loss of the flights at City Centre Airport.

They include equipping ambulances with a device to change traffic signals andwith GPS to find the least-clogged routes during rush hour.It is also recommended helicopter service should be arranged to get patients to the hospital quickly when traffic is extremely heavy.

Cowell said the City Centre Airport closure means medevac flights would have to land in Calgary if they couldn't land at the international airport.

Medevac flights werecited asan issue by those opposed to the shutdown of City Centre Airport, which started last summer with the closure of one of the two runways.

"We have said all along that medevac is an important issue," said Mary Anne Stanway from closure opposition group Envision Edmonton.

"And we have discussed medevac and in return we were told we were fear-mongering, that we were exaggerating the situation and we weren't."

Health Minister Gene Zwozdesky said medevac flights will not be moved out of City Centre Airport until all safety concerns are addressed.