Trustee quits over plan to buy new chopper

LONG time member of the Taranaki Rescue Helicopter Trust, Brian Jeffares, has resigned following its decision to buy a twin-engine helicopter while the future of the service is uncertain.
Brian has been a member of the trust for about eight years. He says the trust should wait a few more months before making the decision to buy a new helicopter.
The trust's $4.5 million Augusta Westland A119 Koala helicopter has been unable to be based at Taranaki Base Hospital since May, due to a ruling by the Civil Aviation Authority that prevents a single engine aircraft from flying over a built up area.
Trust chairman Mark Masters was reported this week as saying the trust has agreed in principle to sell the single engine helicopter and replace it with a twin engine one that will cost an extra $1.4million, which it will have to find.
The new helicopter will be based at the hospital's purpose-built helipad. The trust is hopeful it will be here by the end of the year.
Brian says he resigned because he felt so strongly that the trust should wait before making the decision.
"To a number of people, buying the new helicopter seemed the best option, but it seems to me that we could have continued as we were.
"Although the CAA did not want the helicopter being based at the hospital, in an emergency situation, such as a critically ill patient needing immediate attention, the pilot could opt to land and deliver them at Base Hospital.
"For many of the passengers being transported, there was not the need to rush, and as they were already transferred into an ambulance at the ward and driven to the helipad," he says.
"A patient going to Waikato gets put into an ambulance then driven to the hangar anyway, all we added was another couple of minutes to go to the port."
Brian says the government is reviewing rescue helicopter services.
"At a national level, the Government is looking at the air ambulance service and whether there's too many of them, and whether we should just have a national provider, which would mean the little ones like Taranaki get pushed to one side."
Also, the District Health Board (DHB) has opted to find a new ambulance service provider for the region, and two companies are being assessed.
"That decision will be made early in the New Year. To me, it seemed logical that whoever the provider is, we should look at having an integrated air/road ambulance service and work together, not separately, for support."
The extra cost of buying the new helicopter was another issue, he says, particularly as the DHB has said it would not be able to pay the full rate for running the more expensive new twin-engine machine.
"To me that was too great a risk to take given we are already providing a service anyway. We can still do the emergency rescue, but we could work out of the port or the airport.
Brian, who has just been re-elected unopposed to the Taranaki Regional Council and is a former Mayor of Stratford, says there have often been times when he has fitted in with a majority decision, but not this time.
"In this case the decision made was so contrary to my beliefs, I couldn't stay on the trust, and so that's why I have resigned."
The trust has replaced Brian with New Plymouth businessman Bruce Gilmour.