By Kara Lawrence
The Daily Telegraph (Australia)
Copyright 2006 Nationwide News Pty Limited
All Rights Reserved
Forty doctors who work for NRMA CareFlight will refuse to fly for a new rescue helicopter service operated by a Canadian company unless they get to keep their own flight crews.
NRMA CareFlight yesterday claimed the proposed operating system for the new State Government-funded helicopter rescue service would compromise on safety.
If the doctors refused to be employed by the new service, the Government would be forced to raid public hospital emergency departments to find replacement doctors, NRMA CareFlight chairman Ian Badham said.
Mr Badham said that under the proposal for the new service, to be provided by Canadian company CHC Australia, CHC would provide its own helicopters, pilots, flight crew as well as engineers.
But he said that if the NRMA CareFlight doctors were re-hired by the new service, they should have their own pilots and flight crews working with them as one team.
In addition to its 40 doctors, CareFlight had 10 pilots and 14 air crew, Mr Badham said.
International experience showed that if doctors and flight crew were not working as an integrated team, crashes had occurred, he said.
Yesterday the 40 specialist doctors employed by CareFlight held a meeting in which they unanimously voted not to accept positions with the outfit if their pilots and air crews were not employed.
NRMA CareFlight, which is government-subsidised and community-funded, would cease its three-helicopter service on December 31.
CareFlight Medical director Dr Alan Garner said the NSW Government would be forced to “grab” junior, inexperienced doctors from the already dangerously understaffed public hospital emergency departments to staff CHC’s medical retrievals.
“In a time of critical doctor shortages the NSW Government has forgotten why specialist doctors provide services to CareFlight,” he said.
Westpac Lifesaver helicopter service CEO Doug Menzies yesterday said the dozen doctors on its books already worked for NSW Health so it was in a different position from CareFlight.
Opposition health spokeswoman Jillian Skinner said the Government needed to listen to the concerns of medical professionals.