We need a second helicopter — our lives depend on it
THE Commonwealth needs to stop dragging its feet and cough up the $10 million we need to fund a new Top End CareFlight helicopter, writes LAUREN ROBERTS
Northern Territory
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THE Commonwealth needs to stop dragging its feet and cough up the $10 million we need to fund a new Top End CareFlight helicopter.
Lives are literally at stake.
It’s bloody ridiculous that there’s just ONE emergency retrieval helicopter for the Top End of the NT.
Tasmania has three helicopters to cover 68,000sq km; and the Top End’s only helicopter looks after 475,000sq km. We’ve got an area nearly seven times as big as Tasmania, but only one third the helicopters.
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I’m not a mathematician, but that sounds pretty uneven — especially considering how many remote NT communities are cut off during the wet season, and how difficult some of our terrain can be to journey through.
We also attract a large number of tourists to the Top End — which is incredible, but many of them simply aren’t prepared for the wild and harsh conditions here.
This means people sometimes get in trouble. And we need to have enough equipment to rescue them safely.
Just this week, CareFlight rescued three injured tourists from remote Top End locations — winching them from locations that would have been impossible to reach otherwise.
On Thursday, a 49-year-old international tourist had to be rescued from Maguk waterfall in Kakadu National Park after he slipped and injured his lower leg. The rocky terrain would have been out of the question for any aircraft other than a helicopter.
On Monday, a 33-year-old woman was hurt hiking at Koolpin Gorge in Kakadu National Park. She fell and hurt her back, and — yet again — CareFlight’s helicopter was sent to save her.
Looking at the uneven cliff the chopper set down on — there is no way that patient could have been reached so quickly without a chopper.
Last Saturday, a woman in her 70s was flown to Royal Darwin Hospital after she fell and hit her head walking near Gunbalanya.
The lady was visiting the NT from overseas and was on a walking tour through Arnhem Land when she slipped and sustained a head injury.
Again, the remote spot would have been challenging — if not impossible — to reach without a helicopter.
But it’s not just tourists.
Let me tell you a horrible story.
About 10pm on Friday, August 2, a 38-year-old man fell 6m down a cliff at Dundee Beach.
Tragically, this significantly injured man was forced lay there on the beach until he was finally moved at 2am.
For four agonising hours, this man — with spinal injuries and injuries to his face and head — was forced to wait on the sand. Why? Because there was simply no CareFlight chopper to pick him up. Our only Top End rescue helicopter was in Katherine when the man fell.
A helicopter was deployed from the RAAF base in an attempt to rescue the man, but it was forced to turn back due to technical difficulties.
This poor man had to be transported — after laying on a beach, injured for FOUR ENTIRE HOURS — in an ambulance. Not begrudging our hardworking paramedics, but this man needed to be flown, not driven.
This is why we need another helicopter. All other states of Australia have at least three medical rescue helicopters.
On a practical note, a second chopper will help close the gap on medical rescue capability, from 70 per cent service availability to more than 95 per cent availability.
At the moment, our one chopper is on the ground at least 30 per cent of the time, because of regular maintenance requirements. So nearly four months of the year we just don’t have a CareFlight helicopter available to patients.
That’s not good enough.
And yes, I know the Commonwealth already funds the Royal Flying Doctor Service — which does an incredible job looking after Central Australians.
But we need more support here, in the Top End — and the Feds clearly have the cash.
According to Federal budget documents, the Commonwealth’s health spending is expected to increase from $81.8 billion in 2019-20 to $89.5 billion in 2022-23. What’s a measly $10 million to help save lives in the Top End when you’re already spending $81.8 billion?
Really, I’d be calling on the NT Government to stump up the cash — but we all know they’re broke, and we can’t wait another year for their long-awaited “budget recovery plan” to free up enough cash to fund a second chopper.
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As it is, if CareFlight was handed the dosh tomorrow — it could take up to a year to fit it out and have it up in the air.
That’s a long time to be operating with just one helicopter when the need is clearly there for two.
This issue really is above politics. It’s more important than pointing fingers, than insisting the other party needs to stump up the cash.
There’s nothing more important than the lives of Territorians.
Originally published as We need a second helicopter — our lives depend on it
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