Lakes District Air Rescue Trust to continue

Lakes District Air Rescue Trust secretary manager Tony Hill, (left) and Chairman Jules Tapper with one of the commercial operators helicopters in Queenstown. Photo / Olivia Caldwell

Lakes District Air Rescue Trust chairman Jules Tapper says the trust will still be out there "rattling the tin" in the coming years, despite not bidding for the new South Island-wide rescue helicopter contract.

Mr Tapper said whichever organisation won the new National Ambulance Sector Office (Naso) contract would need the continued support of the community and sponsorship through the trust.

"The new tender process removed trusts like LDart and the Dunedin-based Otago Trust from a capability of tendering for the new contract," Mr Tapper said.

"It was for the whole of the South Island at designated bases - some outside of the region in which we serve our local communities."

Mr Tapper said LDart, which covers much of the lower South Island from bases in Queenstown and Te Anau, and the Dunedin-based Otago Trust had agreed to support Helicopter Emergency Medical Services New Zealand Ltd (Hems) if it was successful in its tender for continuation of services in the region.

Hems, which was established in 2016, it is a joint venture between Mosgiel-based Helicopters Otago Ltd, Christchurch's Garden City Helicopters and Te Anau's Southern Lakes Helicopters.

The current service continues until November 1.

Under the new contract, the financial risk will be transferred from the trusts to the new operators of the service. It will not, however, be fully funded by Naso, the Ministry of Health and ACC.

"The service has never been fully funded by the agencies that over the last 30 years have made calls on the trusts' services, and thus continuing community support and sponsorship is imperative for the service to be maintained," Mr Tapper said.

"Indeed, it was a condition of the new tender that prospective bidders show support from the existing trusts and sponsors before they were entitled to bid for the new contracts."

Mr Tapper said he had received calls from people worried the trust would then be redundant and wound up, after reading yesterday's article in the Otago Daily Times which stated it had not submitted a bid.

"Nothing is further from the truth and we will still be out there 'rattling the tin' and gathering in support funding as our reason for being is to ensure a high-class EMS [emergency medical service] in the area no matter who the actual operators are."

Any bidders for the new service expect to hear from Naso about the outcome of their bids by late July or early August.