Todd McClay with the old Rotorua BayTrust Rescue Helicopter. Photo / File
Rotorua MP Todd McClay has vowed to continue his fight to bring back the city's rescue helicopter amid his fears "people's health and lives were put at risk".
But the National Ambulance Sector Office says the modernised service means all communities can access safe and clinically resourced air ambulance helicopters no matter where they live and the helicopter service provider says they are now better manned.
McClay campaigned on reinstating the helicopter which was sold two years ago as part of a 10-year nationwide modernisation programme. He said he would now write to the new relevant minister to state the case for government funding of $1.6 million per year for four years.
"You can't have three helicopters that are flat-out busy, take one away, and expect service to improve.
"We are talking about the emergency response part that's where people in Rotorua and wider Bay of Plenty are being let down."
New figures show Taupō's Greenlea rescue helicopter has done more missions in 2020 by early October than it did in all of 2019.
In 2019 the Greenlea Rescue Helicopter completed 377 missions. On October 11 this year, it reached the same number, with about three months of the year still remaining.
In September the helicopter averaged more than a mission per day, notching up 42 callouts for the month.
Rotorua Rescue Helicopter Trust chairman Mark Mortimer thought the figures were a reflection of not having a machine based in Rotorua anymore.
"Even before they closed us down our mission numbers had climbed and were climbing dramatically."
The TECT Rescue Helicopter and Greenlea Rescue Helicopter, like all Philips Search & Rescue Trust rescue helicopters, operate 24/7, 365 days a year.
They respond and are airborne within 10 minutes and Trust-wide service practically the entire North Island.
A National Ambulance Sector Office (NASO) spokesperson said NASO was jointly funded and governed by ACC and the Ministry of Health.
They said NASO contracted air ambulance providers for emergency ambulance services, not rescue helicopter services.
"It is a vital lifeline for communities across the country — operating as more than just a transport service.
"Prior to 2018, the country's air ambulance helicopter service lacked national co-ordination and integration, resulting in regional variation in safety, crewing, and clinical resourcing.
"The modernised service will ensure all communities have access to safe and clinically resourced air ambulance helicopters no matter where they live. This ensures patients get the right care at the right time, specific to their medical needs."
The modernisation programme focuses on aviation safety, system co-ordination, clinical resourcing, and service response times.
Improved data collection and new governance structures mean more oversight of the system, the spokesperson said.
They said there were now targets for air ambulance helicopter providers which required two clinical crew members on board.
"This is to provide better in-flight clinical care for patients, starting as soon as the helicopter arrives on scene.
The new contracts have resulted in an increased number of dedicated air ambulance clinical staff, including intensive care paramedics, they said. Despite the removal of some helicopter contracts.
Modern flight paramedics were now dedicated to air ambulance helicopters and were well-educated in aviation medicine.
"Rotorua also now benefits from the use of modern, twin-engine helicopters. Previously, limited space in smaller aircraft did not allow clinical staff to access a patient's full body.
"Urgent life-sustaining treatment could only be delivered on the ground, causing delays in patients reaching hospital."
They said prior to 2018, air ambulance helicopter providers did not generally operate outside their own regional boundaries.
"Now, boundaries are intentionally non-exclusive, so air ambulance helicopter providers can operate outside their 'home' region.
"This means the most suitable air ambulance resource is tasked for any given mission. It also means patients are transported to the right hospital for their needs.
"The closest bases to Rotorua are in Tauranga and Taupō. The flight time between Tauranga and Rotorua is about 15 minutes. The flight time between Taupō and Rotorua is about 22 minutes."
Search & Rescue Services Ltd chief executive David Wickham said the decision to have helicopters based in Tauranga, Taupō and two in Hamilton was made by NASO.
He said the rescue helicopters in Tauranga and Taupō had both been upgraded to twin-engine aircraft, with better avionics and rescue equipment. He said crews were also better sourced.
"A fundamental change is we are now providing a full aeromedical service [the complete package of ICP medical crew, aviation expert crewman pilot and helicopter] rather than a rescue helicopter aviation service.
"Both the larger helicopters and the fulltime crews have combined to enable a better all-round service to be delivered to the wider Bay of Plenty region, so any negatives associated with there being no helicopter located in Rotorua are generally more than compensated for by the improvements that these two factors enable.
"Not only are the medical personnel skilled to a consistently higher level, the crews are all more available which enables a 10 minute response time by day and 20 minutes by night to be achieved for better than 95 per cent of the primary missions.
"This quicker response time enables the area of coverage to be wider than what was achievable before these changes were made."
He said he did not mean to, in any way, detract from the commitment of the previous services.
"We do though need to recognise the improvements that are now in place and have been since the new NASO contracts became fully operationalised.
"Also there is one consistently managed operational system for the entire central region with backup helicopters and crews and interoperability that all add to the depth and resilience of the service offering to the regions SRSL covers."
He said the total missions done by both helicopters from Rotorua Hospital were 49 last year and 48 this year - no real change and about one a week on average.
What was evident was the increase in volumes originating from Taupō, 51 to 92, an 80 per cent increase.
This is mainly due to having the ICPs available with an extended scope of practise that enable interhospital DHB patients to be transported with the ICPs, he said.
In the past, a number of these missions may have been done by the then Rotorua-based service.
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