Hospital helipad to be unveiled
Kamloops' two MLAs will be on hand on Tuesday, Oct 30, as the new heliport at Royal Inland Hospital is unveiled.
Terry Lake (Kamloops-North Thompson) and Kevin Krueger (Kamloops-South Thompson) will be among those at the hospital at 9 a.m. as the Interior Health Authority and the BC Ambulance Service opens the redeveloped and re-certified heliport.
The upgrades got the green light in June 2011 after the Thompson Regional Hospital District (TRHD) voted in favour of funding a portion of the project .
The cost to upgrade the helipad was estimated at around $750,000, with the TRHD funding 40 per cent and the remainder coming from the Interior Health Authority.
In August 2010, Transport Canada advised the IHA and the BC Ambulance Service that the helicopter being used to transport critically ill patients to RIH was too large for the heliport’s certification.
RIH’s helipad was certified to accommodate helicopters up to 13 metres in length.
The helicopter used by BC Ambulance Service is 17 metres.
Since the notification, the ambulance service had been transporting most patients to the Kamloops airport for transfer to RIH by ground ambulance.
According to Canadian Flight Supplement, there are 72 heliports in B.C. and 339 in Canada.
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