Manitoba’s main air ambulance service could soon be in private hands, and the doctors who work on it are threatening to quit in protest.
The provincial government has continued a request for proposals for Lifeflight, the rapid response air ambulance group that serves communities more than 200 kilometres away from Winnipeg.
Physicians involved with the program have expressed their concerns about the plan. In a letter sent last month, Dr. Renate Singh, Lifeflight director, said the 16 doctors who work with Lifeflight would all vacate their posts if the group was privatized. In the letter, the doctors cite concerns with how care and safety may be affected if the service entered private hands.
Physicians met with officials from the Manitoba Ministry of Health last week, but the meeting does not appear to have changed much – the government-posted RFP is still open and, according to media reports, the doctors have not changed their own stance.
Flin Flon MLA Tom Lindsey is concerned that a change with the program could either mean a reduction in service or an increase in costs for users.
“If this government gets its way and privatizes Lifeflight, then it’s for profit and that just becomes more and more expensive all the time, and the government won’t want to fund it,” said Lindsey.
Manitoba, along with Saskatchewan, Quebec and some of the Atlantic provinces, continues to run air ambulance service as a government-funded service. Lifeflight services are currently coordinated out of the Air Services Branch hangar in Winnipeg.
