Another BCEHS air ambulance was assisted by the Blackpool Volunteer Fire Rescue (BVFR) ground team at the helipad as they liaised a patient transfer once again from the Blackpool site on Sept. 28 at 5:45 p.m.
This is the third air ambulance patient transfer in the past 11 days in the North Thompson Valley via the helipad on site there. The heilpad is maintained by the BVFR's specially certified team year round as a vital service in the valley.
Fire chief, Mike Savage, recently told Black Press, "Without the air ambulance some serious transfers would be delayed or have to travel to a facility via ground ambulance when advanced care is needed sooner."
Savage said this on Sept. 17 when there were two airlift patient transfers from the BVFR helipad during an all-day closure of the emergency department at Dr. Helmcken Memorial Hospital.
In a post on social media, TNRD director for Area 'A' Usoff Tsao commented on yet another BCEHS medevac saying, "Now that the Interior Health Authority has allowed helipad construction on Dr. Helmcken Hospital land, we need to either support that construction or support our Blackpool Fire Rescue volunteers with construction at their site."
In December 2023 the Clearwater Times reported Interior Health would be working with the District of Clearwater and local partners, in the hope of eventually seeing a permanent helipad on IH property closer to Dr. Helmcken Memorial Hospital.
Mayor of Clearwater, Merlin Blackwell, also expressed his support for a helipad being constructed closer to Dr. Helmcken Memorial saying, "We need to make this an urgent priority to get a pad constructed."
