Medavie Health has been chosen by government as the company to design, manage and operate the province’s new integrated road and air ambulance service.
According to government, the company will provide clinical and operational management staff, and manage the dispatch of all emergency calls, routine medical transfers and non-medical transfers through a single, integrated road and air ambulance system.
It will also manage the associated infrastructure including a road ambulance base, and determine the location and deployment of road ambulances.
Medavie is also expected to implement a ten-year plan to make sure that all paramedics have minimum primary care paramedic certification and to work with the province to implement a long-term plan for the creation of a province-wide helicopter emergency medical service. Air ambulance, which will be located in St. John’s, Gander, and Happy Valley-Goose Bay, will be operated through a partnership with PAL and Air Borealis.
The concept of contracting-out air ambulance services and using public sector workers to deliver services managed by the private sector is one that has caused concern for the province’s largest public sector union. Then-health minister Tom Osborne defended the approach last year, indicating that it was necessary to address a previously “fragmented” system.