When a patient requires transfer by air, the cost of the transfer is taken out of the budget of the health district where the patient is being taken from.
I think that's correct. But it would still be funded from the one state dept.
I don't think the NSW Government is bleeding with financial stress (correct me if I'm wrong, been a few years since I lived there).
You know what, I am going to have to jump in and correct you there!
The reason they are not bleeding is because they have been bled out! NSW health have anyway. My other half is a senior nurse (Nursing Unit Manager) and they have to bring their own cutlery to work, cos the dept can't afford disposable plastic knives and forks! Staff cutbacks, training budgets have up and disappeared. The doc's and nurses are all being forced to do more with less.
As I said, in my perfect world, if I scraped my knee out in the bush, the state government would rush a team of specialists out to my location in the lastest Avanti to patch me up. Whether we like it or not, everything has a cost to it, and the government will continue to apply the cost/benefit analysis to it.
All that aside, I still believe that a 6000hr Mojave is suitable for this job. I wouldn't be sending a busted old s$@tbox to do it (VH-SAO?!) but if the aircraft is not fit for flying paitent transfers, then in reality, it is not fit to fly full stop! The purpose of the flight and payload often has little bearing on why something went bad (overloading/DG/show-boating/etc aside, before everyone flames me!!) If PGW was full of the same weight of stuffed animals it wouldn't have made a difference.
Disclaimer - Just my opinion!
PS -
As far as I know, this is the ONLY state where this occurs!
That I don't know about. They were due to
pick up the patient at YBAF and transfer them to Albury? Not sure who would foot the bill in that case?