AS I watch the Life Flight rescue helicopter touch down at Tauherenikau race course yesterday, I can't help but reflect that the entire morning's rescue infrastructure is being handled by volunteers and charities - and there is something fundamentally wrong with that.
Featherston volunteer fire brigade are there to createa landing site for the Westpac helicopter.
The Wellington Free Ambulance crew have stabilised the man, with a heart condition, in preparation for a swift flight to Wellington. Life Flight crewman Dave Greenberg, a 20-plus year veteran of rescues, introduces himself to the man's partner and briefs her. He's carrying her suitcase, ready for the overnight stay in Wellington.
The process is smooth, polished, professional - it's everything you want when mortality taps you on the heart. And yet it's being run by people who had their Sunday morning peace disturbed, by people who every year have to run an appeal to fund their very existence.
This is why we don't hesitate to make sure, where possible, that Life Flight gets published. If it is the role of government to let people decide what they want in terms of rescue services, and raise money for them, then that's a bad idea. People don't always figure out what is best for them.
Yesterday morning, there was no way an ambulance was going to get over the hill, with the snow, and there was especially no way a guy with a heart condition was going to get to Wellington ED in 30 minutes.
Without these services, people are going to die. We've done stories on touch-and-go situations, where the only saving factors have been the skill of the crew and the minimal time taken to get to hospital. It worries me we have to fundraise for these services but never question how vital they are. If the opportunity comes up, put some money towards them.
