Outcry saves rescue copters

A public outcry has forced the Government to step in and dump a controversial ACC proposal to cut the number of rescue helicopters.

ACC Minister Ruth Dyson yesterday assured all communities they would keep their helicopters.

Last month, ACC released a draft national air ambulance strategy for public submission, suggesting air ambulances should centre on seven cities with big hospitals, and be maintained in five other centres.

The future of rescue helicopters in Tauranga, Rotorua, Taupo, Palmerston North and Nelson was left in doubt.

The draft suggested there were too many services operating.

Affected areas strongly opposed the proposal, warning that lives would be lost if services were cut.

Ms Dyson said yesterday that after listening to the communities, and to some of her Labour colleagues, she had asked ACC to withdraw the strategy and stop the submission process.

She said her intervention was appropriate given the public outcry.

"ACC is one contributor to the funding source of helicopter services, but it is not the only one," Ms Dyson said.

"In this case it was clear to me that the communities were not engaging in discussion on the strategy because they were so anxious about the threat to the viability of their local services.

"We can't have the sort of debate we need to have in that environment. So I said this isn't going to work, stop it."

Ms Dyson said the controversy over the location of helicopters stopped public discussion on other important issues such as standards for paramedics and pilots, equipment and response times.

Last night an ACC spokesman said Ms Dyson had asked the organisation to withdraw the proposal yesterday and it had done so immediately. He said ACC would continue to work towards providing the best air ambulance services possible.

National MP Tony Ryall, who opposed ACC's proposal, said it was a victory over a stupid plan that would have cost lives.

He said the Government had taken too long to respond to communities opposed to the proposal, which saw 20,000 people sign a petition organised by National's East Coast candidate Anne Tolley.

"This just shows that communities working together can achieve success," Mrs Tolley said.

Mike Hall, pilot and base manager of the Square Trust Rescue Helicopter in Palmerston North, said the proposed closures would have claimed countless lives.

Two weeks ago it took the helicopter 11 minutes to arrive to rescue two boys swept out to sea. Mr Hall said that from Wellington, the proposed centre for rescue services, the response time would have been 35 minutes at best.

"It's claimed emotively, but the cold, hard facts here are that those boys would have been dead.

"You can have the best doctors in the world arriving from elsewhere, but they cannot save a corpse."

David Wickham, secretary of the Phillips Search and Rescue Trust, which operates services in Hamilton, Tauranga, Taupo, Rotorua and Palmerston North, said the closure recommendations had been an unpleasant surprise.

"Geographically, we could not imagine how some of the proposals could be a sensible option," he said.

"We are just delighted and that's an understatement," Mr Wickham said.

The Eastland Rescue Helicopter Trust in Gisborne was not threatened with closure, but chief executive Sid Clarke said ministers should remember that communities, not the Government, were the biggest contributor to the helicopter services.

"This was a knee-jerk reaction by bureaucrats once again," he said.

Earlier this week ACC said the Nelson rescue helicopter would stay, but refused to give assurances about the other areas under threat.

ACC had said there were too many rescue helicopters in the central North Island and that the service was fragmented and was lacking in co-ordination.

In October ACC Healthwise general manager David Rankin questioned why there were so many rescue helicopters "when so many of them are running such a low number of flights they can't be breaking even".

Last night the country's only 24-hour service, the Westpac Auckland Helicopter Trust, said ACC had underestimated the public regard for air ambulance services.

Chief executive Rea Wikaira said: "Whether there are too many services and whether they are economic is not something for ACC to determine.

"With all the services like this the community owns us and they've made it clear how important we are."