❓ Mr. Castrilli inquired about the impact of the South West emergency rescue helicopter service. The Minister highlighted its life-saving role, funded by the royalties for regions program, citing statistics on missions flown and the importance of maintaining program integrity.
AnsweredQoN 604Legislative Assembly
QuestionView source ↗
SOUTH WEST EMERGENCY RESCUE HELICOPTER SERVICE
604. Mr G.M. CASTRILLI to the Minister
for Emergency Services:
I recently inspected the permanent
base currently under construction at Bunbury Airport for the new south west
emergency rescue helicopter service. How has this service assisted communities
in the south west?
604. Mr G.M. CASTRILLI to the Minister
for Emergency Services:
I recently inspected the permanent
base currently under construction at Bunbury Airport for the new south west
emergency rescue helicopter service. How has this service assisted communities
in the south west?
AnswerView source ↗
I thank the member for Bunbury for
his ongoing interest. He has been a passionate advocate for this service in the
south west and he should be very proud of what he has helped achieve. I am very
pleased to update the house on the first six months of operation of the second
rescue helicopter sponsored by the RAC and obviously funded predominantly
through the royalties for regions program. The second helicopter has now been
operating, as I said, for six months. It has flown about one mission a day. It
has flown 150 flights, and 130 of those flights have been primary retrievals—that
is, road crash rescue and other accidents in which getting critical care to an
accident victim very quickly and getting them to hospital has helped save many
lives. Eleven of those 150 flights have been search-and-rescue missions,
because these helicopters are equipped with the latest night-vision and
electronic mapping technology that interacts with the computer-aided dispatch
system for emergency services. Six of those flights have been for secondary
transfers, such as situations in which it has been deemed that road transfer of
the patient back to Perth was unsuitable. Most interestingly, though, of those
150 flights, 50 have taken place when the Perth-based rescue helicopter has
also been in the air. Of course, rescue helicopters are one of those things
that people hope they never have to use, but, unfortunately, the lottery of
life means that sometimes the cards do not fall our way, and people never know
when they are going to have to rely on one of those flights to save their life.
Two helicopters were in the air at the same time 50 times and, of course, that
would have saved many lives, and we just cannot put a price on that.
As I said, this is something that we
are exceptionally proud of and it has been predominantly funded through the
royalties for regions program. Once again, it is an essential reason why the
integrity of that program must be maintained at any cost. Without something
like that, this helicopter would not be in the air. It is very important that
we ensure that we do everything we can to continue funding these kinds of
services into the future, because they are the things that make an absolute
real difference in saving lives in regional Western Australia.
his ongoing interest. He has been a passionate advocate for this service in the
south west and he should be very proud of what he has helped achieve. I am very
pleased to update the house on the first six months of operation of the second
rescue helicopter sponsored by the RAC and obviously funded predominantly
through the royalties for regions program. The second helicopter has now been
operating, as I said, for six months. It has flown about one mission a day. It
has flown 150 flights, and 130 of those flights have been primary retrievals—that
is, road crash rescue and other accidents in which getting critical care to an
accident victim very quickly and getting them to hospital has helped save many
lives. Eleven of those 150 flights have been search-and-rescue missions,
because these helicopters are equipped with the latest night-vision and
electronic mapping technology that interacts with the computer-aided dispatch
system for emergency services. Six of those flights have been for secondary
transfers, such as situations in which it has been deemed that road transfer of
the patient back to Perth was unsuitable. Most interestingly, though, of those
150 flights, 50 have taken place when the Perth-based rescue helicopter has
also been in the air. Of course, rescue helicopters are one of those things
that people hope they never have to use, but, unfortunately, the lottery of
life means that sometimes the cards do not fall our way, and people never know
when they are going to have to rely on one of those flights to save their life.
Two helicopters were in the air at the same time 50 times and, of course, that
would have saved many lives, and we just cannot put a price on that.
As I said, this is something that we
are exceptionally proud of and it has been predominantly funded through the
royalties for regions program. Once again, it is an essential reason why the
integrity of that program must be maintained at any cost. Without something
like that, this helicopter would not be in the air. It is very important that
we ensure that we do everything we can to continue funding these kinds of
services into the future, because they are the things that make an absolute
real difference in saving lives in regional Western Australia.
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