A Life Saving Care Fight

Sick Of Saying No

The contract announcement for the Rotary Wing Patient Transport Services In The Greater Sydney Area For The Ambulance Service of NSW tender came only a few weeks before Christmas and wasn’t expected until after the NSW state election in March.

photo – Paul Sadler “We understood there was a lot of emotion out there about the decision but at the end of the day my aim is to help as many people as we can, as quickly as we can, and minimise any delays,” explained Graeme Field, manager of aviation medical services for the NSW Ambulance Service.

“The Sydney helicopter rescue system couldn’t cope with its current demands – let alone future demands.

“The Ambulance service got to the stage where we were just sick of saying ‘no you can’t have a helicopter’ because there were simply none available.

“CHC were able to give us a package that allowed us to say yes – more quickly than anyone else,” said Field.

The NSW Ambulance service, responsible for the aeromedical contracts in the state, also wanted to get away from the two-service ‘this is ours, this is theirs’ situation.

“For example, if we had a paramedic off sick at Life Saver and had an extra one at CareFlight, we couldn’t move him over because of different AOCs and SOPs and it was just ridiculous. So putting them altogether with the one operator, we now can move them. ” While it won the NSW contract ahead of the incumbents, CHC Helicopters (Australia) is no stranger to rescue and EMS services in Australia. It operates SAR helicopters for the RAAF, Police/Air Ambulance helicopters in Victoria, and rescue helicopter services in Queensland, the ACT and WA.

Fight’s On

Soon after the contract announcement, a very public war began, primarily between CareFlight and NSW Health, in consultation with NSW Ambulance Service, to fight for CareFlight’s existence.

Talks between the parties broke down on several occasions as CareFlight rallied for support to keep its doctors, pilots, engineers, and flightcrews employed.

“While the tender process was loaded against us, as we see it, the community let the government know they wanted NRMA CareFlight to be there to look after them,” said Ian Badham, NRMA CareFlight chairman and co-founder.

NRMA CareFlight enlisted an army of volunteers and staff to help fight the campaign, collecting signatures for a petition and creating posters and bumper stickers that said I care and I vote.

“Instead of being shut down on December 31, because of the war we were raging against them [the government], the compromise was that we stopped the war and continued negotiations with them and operated as we were doing until CHC’s interim contract started,” said Badham.

The Contract

The NSW Health Department requested a review of aeromedical retrieval in NSW in 2004, which revealed the existing greater Sydney area (Sydney, Wollongong and Orange) helicopter arrangements were struggling to keep up with the state’s rescue requirements.

NSW Health subsequently issued a tender for the supply of improved and standardised helicopter retrieval.

The tender required an operator to use helicopters with a standardised fitout, the ability to carry more equipment, larger/heavier patients, increased capacity NRMA CareFlight’s chairman and co-founder, Ian Badham, fought hard to keep its rescue service in the air. (Paul Sadler) to respond to mass casualty incidents, that could fly faster and further than current contracted helicopters, and have improved poor weather performance. Another stipulation was to have a back-up helicopter available 100 per cent of the time.

The seven year contract (with three one-year options) was just for the supply of helicopters, associated aircrews, and maintenance, with a separate component to decide who would medically equip the new helicopters.

From May 14 CHC will use three interim Bell 412s initially from bases at Sydney’s Bankstown Airport; Albion Park Airport, south of Wollongong; and at Orange, located close to both the current Orange Base Hospital and the new hospital now on the drawing board, until a new fleet of two AW139s and two EC 145s comes on strength from April 2008. A fifth and backup type has yet to be decided upon but will likely be another AW139.

CHC plans to base an AW139 and an EC 145 in Sydney (at a final location is yet to be determined), an AW139 in Wollongong, and an EC 145 in Orange. The fifth and spare helicopter will move between all bases.

The CHC contract is the first phase in standardising the state’s aeromedical retrieval system. A second tender, to be released once the dust has settled on the greater Sydney area contact, will standardise the regional helicopter rescue services in Newcastle, Tamworth, Lismore and Canberra (NSW Health provides funding for Canberra’s SouthCare service).

The government hopes that the new service in greater Sydney will ease the pressure on the regional helicopter services.

Nrma Careflight’s Reprieve

NRMA CareFlight and the NSW government came to an agreement in principal on December 22 to secure the future involvement of CareFlight in NSW’s emergency helicopter services. “Because of people power – the support we got from the community, it forced the Premier to intervene in the week before Christmas,” said Ian Badham. “And after some robust negotiations with the government, we reached a compromise to allow us to live on, which is the most important thing because the community definitely wanted us to be here. ” Under the agreement, NRMA CareFlight’s doctors will staff the CHC helicopters in Sydney and Orange.

“Our medical teams have been invited to stay on and work as CareFlight, whereas initially they were being asked to work on under the NSW Health department, which they didn’t want to do,” said Badham.

NSW Ambulance chief executive Greg Rochford confirmed in a statement that CareFlight’s pool of 41 doctors will continue to work on with the new helicopter service.

“We listened to the requests made by CareFlight, and the Ambulance service agreed to CareFlight’s contracted doctors continuing on at their same bases.

“There is a place for them [CareFlight] in the new entity but the tender was won by CHC Australia,” said Rochford.

A Sydney Area Health Services (SARS) doctor will soon be provided on the Wollongong helicopter which, up until now, has been crewed by two NSW Ambulance paramedics. The government also plans to increase the coverage of the Wollongong and Orange services from their current 10 hours a day (daylight hours) to 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

In consultation with its major sponsors, NRMA Insurance (IAG) and NRMA Member Services, CareFlight and the government are currently negotiating to continue the NRMA CareFlight naming rights and sponsorship on the helicopters.

“In recognition of the good work of NRMA CareFlight and Westpac Life Saver, we have given them the first option to take up this [naming rights] opportunity,” said Rochford “They could use the aircraft as a fund raising vehicle to raise money both for the helicopter service and also for their other activities”.

“CareFlight is not only an essential service, it is a much loved service, and I’m delighted that they will continue to provide a vital service in the skies above NSW,” said NSW Premier Morris Iemma, in a bid to quell any voter backlash from the decision to close down two Sydney icons prior to a state election.

“It is a credit to them that they persevered with negotiations despite their initial disappointment over the tender. This is a good outcome for the community and CareFlight and it’s now time to move forward so all parties can get on with saving lives. ” The government has also given its support for the continuation and expansion of CareFlight’s Head Injury Response Trial (HIRT) from its Westmead base, in Sydney’s outer west (see May 2005 AA. ) “We’ve been invited to continue and expand our head injury retrieval trial which is already starting to have some very significant success,” says Badham.

HIRT will continue for a further two years to see out its initial trial, which has been fully funded by NRMA Insurance, and will then be expanded under the government’s arrangements to be crewed by CareFlight’s crews in its own helicopter/s.

CareFlight will also continue operating its international medical retrieval team, and medical research, development and teaching programs.

Back To The Future

Out on the coast at the Westpac Life Saver base, “There was disappointment around the place obviously,” explained Westpac Life Saver chief pilot Peter Yates about losing the rescue helicopter contract.

“We’ve gone through, as has CareFlight, multiple extensions to the [current] contract, some as short as three months and some as long as seven months. It has been a long period of uncertainty and a feeling of insecurity so it wasn’t a major shock for us that it went to CHC. ” Unlike CareFlight, Life Saver decided not to use the media to campaign for its continued existence. “There are many reasons for keeping out of the media – for one, we are community based,” explained Yates. “It was not in our corporate thinking to turn around and say to NSW Health ‘we’ll stop services on December 31’ in protest.

Sure it would of sent a strong message to Health but what it really would of done is stop the supply of rescue services to the community.

They’re the whole reason why we are here. ” Australia’s oldest civil helicopter rescue service, Westpac Life Saver is owned by Surf Life Saving Australia and commenced helicopter rescue services in October 1973 using a Bell 47G performing beach patrols and rescues in Sydney on weekends.

“What I’d really like to get across is that we are a community based rescue helicopter service. We started in ’73 for the community. It’s only that NSW Health came along and decided to make use of the helicopter, but had they not, we would of still been here as a community based helicopter,” said Yates.

From May 14, the Westpac Life Saver service will go back to the future with its operations and focus on its traditional role of beach patrols and surf rescue.

“We will go back to doing aquatic rescues tasked to us by Surf Life Saving Australia for any water rescues which they consider require the use of a helicopter – more of the type of rescue work that we did in the past. ” Life Saver also still has a contract with AUSAR to provide search and rescue support when tasked to locate activated emergency locator transmitters from missing bushwalkers, vessels or downed aircraft.

Life Saver currently operates with a crew of four, a pilot, air crewman, NSW Ambulance Special Casualty Access Team (SCAT) paramedic, and doctor. From May, Life Saver will conduct its beach patrols and rescue tasks with a crew of three: pilot, air crewman and a rescue crewman. Its rescue crewman will have the same medical qualifications as a surf lifesaver patrolling the beaches and it is envisaged that once a patient has been rescued he or she will be then flown to the nearest suitable hospital for further treatment.

Apart from its surf rescue duties, Westpac Life Saver has several other projects on the horizon.

“We are also currently looking at other business prospects for our helicopters which I can’t elaborate on at this stage,” noted Yates.

In late December, Life Saver moved into its new purpose-built $3 million hangar facility at Cape Banks, located on the northern headland of Sydney’s Botany Bay. The large 2772m2 complex houses the service’s two BK 117B2 helicopters, administration, engineering, and crew sleeping quarters, with the hangar floor large enough to cater for up to two AW139 sized helicopters side by side.

“Obviously this base being positioned right on the coast will be a major player in our future operations,” said Yates.

With the change in emphasis of its operations and possible new roles on the horizon, Life Saver is evaluating whether to keep its two existing BK 117s (both imported into Australia from Japanese operators in the mid and late ’90s) or acquire a new type.

“We’re are still working out whether it is beneficial to keep both machines or if it’s more beneficial to go back to using just one and maybe updating to an EC 145, the replacement machine for a BK,” said Yates.

Westpac Life Saver will continue to be supported by naming rights sponsor Westpac Banking Corporation, other corporate sponsors, donations from the public, and from Surf Life Saving Australia funds. Since the contract announcement, Westpac have committed to giving Life Saver more funds to support its operations.

For now the Hunter and Northern Region NSW operations of Life Saver continue unaffected.

A Good Outcomea Good Outcome, Eventually

In the end, despite losing the NSW contract to CHC, NRMA CareFlight and Westpac Life Saver have both been able to find a place in the community to continue their life saving roles.

And CHC has committed to offering CareFlight’s and Life Saver’s pilots, aircrew, and groundcrew positions working on its aircraft with the greater Sydney rescue contract.

But with five new, more capable helicopter types and a higher level of service, it is the people of NSW who benefit the most from a faster, larger, and a more sophisticated helicopter rescue service.