Govt review puts Northland rescue helicopter service in doubt

One of the new rescue helicopters, at right, with the second new chopper in the hanger behind it. At left are the Northland Rescue helicopter service's two existing machines. Photo / John Stone

The arrival of two new helicopters has boosted rescue helicopter numbers in Northland but the future of the region's service is uncertain under a major government review.

The future of the Northland Rescue helicopter service, based out of Whangārei, is up in the air with the Ministry of Health scheduled to announce successful tenders under a major reshuffle of the air ambulance service this month.

Tenders for a air ambulance service across New Zealand closed in May and the Ministry of Health was not revealing any details about the tenders to ensure a fair process was followed.

The Ministry is scheduled to announce the successful tender later this month.

The Northland Rescue Helicopter will celebrate 30 years of operation this year, but under a proposed new structure the current 17 bases around the country would be reduced to 14.

Whangārei has been proposed as a base but just who would run the service and how was not known. There's the potential for the service to be run from Auckland or by an overseas, private company.

Currently a Board of Trustees governs the Northland Emergency Services Trust and oversees its strategic direction and management.

NEST chairman Paul Ahlers said under the terms of the tendering process he could not comment on the review or what it might mean for the service.

However, he said the trust's two new machines are both Sikorsky S-76 C++ helicopters,the same as its existing helicopters.

The machines have come from Canada and are both 2008 models but have very low hours.

The trust's existing S-76 A model helicopters are around 40 years old but are extensively maintained and it plans to sell them once the new machines have been successfully commissioned.

Ahlers said one helicopter has been bought and the other is being leased. The purchase and lease costs are commercially sensitive until the Government tender is announced. The trust's helicopters completed 883 flights last year.

In August last year the Northland Regional Council confirmed that it would lend up to $9.6 million to help NEST fund two rescue helicopters, via the Local Government Funding Agency.

NRC deputy chairman David Sinclair said the decision could save NEST, and indirectly the community, more than $600,000 in interest over the life of the loan if the trust was to borrow the full $9.6 million.

Sinclair said the council would lend the trust $4.5 million this financial year, allowing it to buy the first machine, with NEST committing $US1.6 million from its helicopter replacement fund along with a contribution from the sale of the existing chopper.

That, coupled with other security measures, significantly reduces the risk to the council, given that if the trust was to default on the loan, the new chopper could be sold and the council would "most likely" recoup its money, he said.

The agreement also provided for NEST to borrow another $5.1 million for a second helicopter in 2019/20, only if it could first secure new contracts to provide services to the National Ambulance Sector Office (NASO) and the Northland District Health Board.