Doctors, province continue to spar over Lifeflight future

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 10/12/2018 (2721 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Manitoba Health Minister Cameron Friesen is “disappointed” Lifeflight air ambulance doctors have said they’ll no longer fly on contracted aircraft, effective Jan. 1.

In a statement issued Monday, Friesen said Lifeflight director Dr. Renate Singh issued an “ultimatum” in response to the province’s request for proposal from private companies seeking to provide air ambulance services.

“We are disappointed to receive Dr. Singh’s letter, which came only a few weeks after constructive conversations had occurred between our government and Lifeflight physicians,” the health minister’s statement said. “We anticipated further discussion with the doctors on air ambulance services, not an ultimatum.”

The province is expected to make a decision on Lifeflight’s future in early 2019.

“The RFP process is not close to complete, making any threat premature and inappropriate,” Friesen’s statement said. “To be clear, though, if the RFP does not result in an outcome that is at least as safe and efficient as the current delivery model, we will not proceed.

“We note that a Lifeflight jet was not available in 51 per cent of all cases in 2017-18, resulting in the use of private carriers. Often, these were not jet aircraft. We look forward to further conversations with the Lifeflight physicians in the near future.”

Lifeflight is a 24-hour air ambulance service, and its medical staff perform between 400 and 500 trips per year. Staff care for critically ill or injured Manitobans during transport in areas outside a 200-kilometre radius of Winnipeg.

In July, the Manitoba government took a step towards privatizing air services, publishing a request for proposal from companies to bid on contracts to operate Lifeflight and the province’s fire-fighting water bombers.

In an October letter addressed to Friesen and leaked to media last month, the 16 doctors responsible for administering Lifeflight services seemed poised to quit en masse should Manitoba go through with its plan.

The doctors said, under a public model, Lifeflight has operated incident-free for 33 years. Switching to a private model will put pressure on crews to take risks for the sake of maintaining profit margins, the doctors’ letter said.

The Lifeflight program was built on the understanding its doctors would be supported by a publicly owned platform, “where crew and patient safety was always the utmost priority,” the group wrote. “Privatization removes an invaluable safeguard from our program and leaves us all with serious concerns that have not been addressed.”

The doctors further claimed: “The willful acceptance of slower transport times for critical care patients in remote northern communities creates two tiers of care in Manitoba: one for the North and one for the south.”

Patient care should be the priority, and the province should listen to its doctors, the Manitoba Government and General Employees’ Union said Monday.

“We have the right to expect it, no matter where we live in this province,” MGEU president Michelle Gawronsky said. “I firmly believe these doctors’ years of medical experience should be taken seriously.

“The pilots, the nurses, the doctors and maintenance crews are saying the rush to privatize is going to negatively impact patients,” she said. “If the doctors leave, what does it mean to those left behind?”

The province’s argument a Lifeflight jet was not available in 51 per cent of all cases in 2017-18, resulting in the use of private carriers, is the result of the service being starved by the province, Gawronsky said.

The province has left vacancies open and waited on training courses pilots need to continue flying for Lifeflight, the union leader said. “The pilots have brought their concerns forward and they’ve fallen on deaf ears,” Gawronsky said.

Doctors Manitoba, the advocacy group for more than 3,000 physicians in Manitoba, declined comment Monday.

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca