
News
Manitoba still mulling over buying rescue helicopter
October 14, 2010 By The Canadian Press
Oct. 14, 2010, Winnipeg - Manitoba Health Minister Theresa Oswald says a helicopter air ambulance to fly critical patients in southern
Manitoba to a Winnipeg hospital is under "very active consideration.''
Oswald says the provincial government has been looking at a helicopter "quite aggressively'' since the flood two years ago.
She says the likeliest location for a helicopterpad is the roof of the Health Sciences Centre, the province's medical trauma centre.
The minister says she's heard that doctors are speculating that the province will move soon on a purchase, but she won't comment on
any timetable.
She says buying a helicopter is easy, but paying for programs and services to keep it running is the costly part.
The province is talking with the Alberta-based Shock Trauma Air Rescue Society about a private foundation providing funding for
operating costs.