NDP criticizes Tories’ plan to expand privatization of air ambulance services

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This article was published 16/03/2023 (963 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Manitoba NDP Leader Wab Kinew has challenged the provincial government over the privatization of air ambulance services after a Brandon senior described poor treatment during a flight to Winnipeg.

During question period in the legislature Wednesday afternoon, Kinew referred to the ordeal of 79-year-old Eleanor Buechler after the Sun published her account in the morning, and criticized the government’s plan to expand privatization of air ambulance services.

“Will the premier admit that the privatization of Lifeflight air ambulance services was wrong and that she will commit to improving health care for seniors like Ms. Buechler?” Kinew asked in the legislature.

Premier Heather Stefanson was not present for Wednesday’s legislature session as she was attending a funeral, so deputy premier Cliff Cullen, the MLA for Spruce Woods, responded on her behalf.

“We certainly are on a journey to heal health care here in Manitoba,” Cullen said. “That’s why we’re making record investments in health care. This goes into the transportation services as well, whether this be by ground ambulance or air ambulance.”

In 2019, the Manitoba government contracted patient transfers out to a number of private air carriers, and in May 2022 it further announced it would issue a request for proposals for medical aviation services using airplanes and helicopters.

Cullen defended privatization of air ambulance services by saying the government’s request for proposals for providers is intended to ensure timely, safe, reliable and consistent care for Manitobans. He also said the move will modernize the service.

In the article that sparked this exchange between Kinew and Cullen, Buechler told the Sun she feared for her life during a trip from Brandon to Winnipeg. Having arrived at the Brandon airport in an ambulance, staff told her to walk to the plane while in pyjama bottoms, her housecoat and slip-on shoes. At the time, the temperature felt like -31 C with the wind chill.

She had suffered a heart attack two days before and was being transported from the Brandon hospital to Winnipeg for further tests.

It’s not known if the service that took Buechler to the airport was a Brandon Fire and Emergency Services ambulance manned by paramedics or a stretcher service that uses drivers trained in first aid and CPR but aren’t paramedics.

Buechler said things didn’t get much better during the flight as she was belted into her seat on a cold plane and not given additional blankets.

Once in Winnipeg, she was told to walk to a stretcher vehicle that took her to St. Boniface Hospital, where she was asked to walk up a ramp that was so snowy she used the stairs instead, although her hands were so cold she could barely grasp the metal railing, she recalled.

Shared Health responded to questions about Buechler’s experience with a statement expressing regret and explaining that typically emergency response staff account for the weather and need to ensure patients are wearing appropriate attire.

Quoting Buechler’s statements in the article, Kinew said in the legislature the privatization of Lifeflight that began with former premier Brian Pallister, and supported by the premier and the Tory cabinet, had led to poor patient care.

“Will the premier simply admit that the air ambulance privatization agenda was wrong and that this government will now reverse course?” Kinew asked.

Cullen pointed to the government’s record $8-billion investment in health care it made in this year’s budget, adding that the further contracting out of air ambulance services would ensure appropriate care.

Manitoba’s air ambulance service was also criticized following the death of a 31-year-old Ebb and Flow First Nation woman who died in May 2021 after a failed airlift attempt in Brandon by a privately contracted aircraft service. The province’s chief medical examiner declined to call an inquest.

» ihitchen@brandonsun.com