Hospital heliport work well advanced

Work is well advanced on the new heliport for Masterton Hospital.
The days of the Westpac Lifeflight helicopter landing on the grassy paddock in front of the surgical block to do a patient transfer, are nearly over.
And, it's not only the nice new heliport that is exciting the hospital's Building and Property Services Manager, Peter Clayton.
He has managed to save a lot of time and money by sourcing the Civil Aviation required helicopter landing lights from a New Zealand firm, instead of from France, where it was initially thought they would have to be purchased.
Mr Clayton said it was a chance discussion with Ian Mallett, Industry Capability Network New Zealand's Manager. Mr Mallet, who lives in Greytown, was visiting Masterton Hospital while his wife was a patient. He took more than a passing interest in new development and as a result learned of the problem of waiting at least 16 weeks for the French lights. 16 lights were needed and they were to cost around $700-$800. Mr Hallett learned of an obscure lighting firm in Auckland, which also made the heliport approved lights at a cost of $500 each.
Mr Clayton said it is District Health Board policy to use as much home-grown products as possible and so the discovery was delightful. "What an encouragement for us to investigate further the not-so-obvious products that could be purchased from New Zealand manufacturers", he said.
The lights will be installed in the middle of January although it's expected the heliport will be operating from the beginning of the year.
The need for a properly certified heliport is becoming more apparent as there is a small but significant trend towards more air transfers, says communications spokeswoman, Jill Stringer. There were 48 air transfers in the year July 03 ? June 04, slightly up on the previous year. In the first five months of this current year, there have been 27 air transfers. In addition there were 325 ambulance transfers. Ms Stringer says transfer of patients to tertiary hospitals is a daily reality for any rural hospital. "When you think transfer, you tend to think 'emergency', but this is not always the case. Patients may travel for specialist investigations like MRI or bone density scans, or for high technology treatments not available in a secondary level hospital".