Medical patients in need of urgent specialized care in Quebec’s remote regions will soon be able to receive helicopter transportation to Montreal’s Sacre-Coeur Hospital, part of a pilot project announced on Friday morning.
Health Minister Gaetan Barrette said the $3 million, 18-month pilot project was partially inspired by conversations with MUHC surgeon and Montreal Canadiens’ team doctor David Mulder. Mulder, a Saskatchewan native, told the minister that Quebec is ill-equipped to handle a situation like the Humboldt Broncos bus crash in his native province.
That crash in April left 16 people dead and 13 others injured, many of whom were taken to hospital by helicopter.
Quebec is the second-to-last province to implement such a service. During the pilot project, Barrette said roughly 200 patients are expected to be transported from regional hospitals in Lanaudiere and Mauricie.
The project will not include helicopters going directly to crash or other trauma sites, but Barrette said it will help them determine the feasibility of implementing such a program in the future.
“In this project there will be no incidences by which we will go to an accident site like the Humboldt crash,” he said. “We won’t do that in this 18-month period of time. Obviously, it will serve to assess that type of situation and assess what exactly is necessary to provide that type of service.”
The announcement comes days after Barrette apologized for remarks about Quebec's existing air-transport program for medical patients. Barrette had said he believed at least one parent of a sick child would be barred from travelling in the medical flight due to intoxication, a statement that many in the province's Native community called racist.
