The aeromedical evacuation program of Quebec wishes to improve its services, while requests for transfers increase by 5% each year.

The aging of the population explains the increase in demand for services.

Last year, more than 7,229 transfer requests were recorded, including 356 in Bas-Saint-Laurent.

These are either the services of the hospital plane which require the presence of a doctor or the multi-patient shuttle which is now in service six days a week to meet growing needs.

With the pandemic, medical air shuttles have been in high demand.

Adjustments have been made by the teams to meet demand.

Shifts have been added to give greater flexibility to services that are essential in the regions, such as Bas-Saint-Laurent.

Program managers want to add a hybrid emergency on-call service where only nurses would be present. This new offer could see the light of day in the next year.

“We managed just by making adjustments, in terms of the schedule by adding a shift to the day to be a little more productive and to be able to occasionally fly two planes at the same time. Being able to temporize this constantly increasing volume. Obviously, at some point, you have to accept the idea that it continues to increase, that the population will continue to age and that we must set up new services to be able to meet this demand. and to ensure access to tertiary centers for the populations of the regions of Quebec”, declared the head of medical service, Evacuations aéromédicales du Québec (EVAQ), Dr. Simon Kind.

Dr. Kind explains, for example, that a patient who has suffered a finger amputation could be transported by this possible hybrid service. An urgent transfer must be carried out, but the presence of a doctor on board the plane is not necessary.

A good proportion of the current missions carried out by ÉVAQ could meet the criteria.