NT Aeromed

[FGD135]

my understanding is that careflight have already carried 3 times more than pearl did in the last year.

That sounds like a terrific statistic, but in reality it probably cost the NT government FOUR times what it cost for Pearl to move that number of patients.

And I can well believe the quoted statistic is true. NTAMS would never go out at 3 am to retrieve a patient with a broken fingernail - but Careflight, in the interests of accumulating impressive statistics will - and in a King Air!

[swab]

FGD.

How can you come up with a comment like it costs "4 times as much". I'm surely you don't know anything that gives you the ability to make such a comment. Ditto regarding the comment that CareFligjt would go out "at 3am for a finger nail"

I mean there is a lot of Careflight bashing going on. I wouldn't have clue if it was warranted or not. But, doesn't anyone bother to ask why the NT government cancelled the Pearl 10 year contract half way (?) into it.
Obviously the government wasn't impressed with their performance. And it not only had to do with not picking up patients with "navel fluff" but moreso that a number of patients died and at the Coroners inquest it was found that the aeromedical retrieval was, at least in part, at fault.

[kalavo]

NTAMS would never go out at 3 am to retrieve a patient with a broken fingernail - but Careflight, in the interests of accumulating impressive statistics will - and in a King Air!

What?! Why not?! Aren't case priorities decided by the DMO and if they get asked to pick them up immediately then that's what they should be doing?

[Capt Claret]

In my time at NTAMS no DMO would have authorised a retrieval for a broken fingernail.

[FGD135]

How can you come up with a comment like it costs "4 times as much". I'm surely you don't know anything that gives you the ability to make such a comment. Ditto regarding the comment that CareFligjt would go out "at 3am for a finger nail"

For the first few months of the Careflight operation, it was costing the NT government close to DOUBLE what is was costing under NTAMS. Part of the reason for this would have been Careflight's startup costs but most of the reason was the large increase in patient numbers that would travel on the King Air.

Under NTAMS, every patient from the many remote communities that could travel on a C206 or C210 would do so - and this trip could occur up to 24 hours after being authorised by the DMO.

Under Careflight however, all of this patient transfer was done by the King Air. Whose brilliant idea was this? I don't know. It could have been Careflight's, or it could have been the government's. Both had reason - see below.

And it was decided that, under Careflight, the response times would be dramatically reduced. Under NTAMS, P1s required 45 minutes from call to doors-closed. P2s were 60 minutes and P3s were either 12 or 24 hours.

With Careflight, the P1s were reduced to 30 minutes, the P2s 45 minutes and the P3s to "within 6 hours but ASAP".

So, the DMO would authorise a flight for the broken fingernail, with a priority of P3 (expecting it to go on a C206 the following morning), but if that authorisation was at, say 8 pm, then Careflight would be going out some time during the night.

Well, attempting to go out some time during the night, but as has been covered earlier in this thread, usually did not have the aircraft availability to do anything at night other than the most urgent. Some night retrievals - including P3s - were done with the helicopter because no fixed wing was available!

So, who was behind some of these brilliant ideas? I don't know and it is difficult to tell. Both parties had reason to be keen on these brilliant ideas.

There was a definite obsession with the statistics in the first few months.

My belief was that the "impressive statistics" gave the government a ready made defence for when the inevitable criticism came in about the poor service levels. There were two lines of defence that could be instantly rolled out:

"But Careflight are carrying 3 times the number of patients that the previous operator carried!"

and

"But Careflight are giving faster response times than the previous operator!".

For Careflight, it was all about the corporate image and the statistics. For the government, it was about buying time and hoping nobody would notice the poor service.

[swab]

FGD, the elephant in the room remains. If ntams were doing such a good job why did the NT govt cancel their 10 year contact half (?) way through? The suggestion appears to be that CF are doing a worse job than Pearl. So why take it off one crap operation and give it to another crap operation? I'm thinking that if you had a crap car mechanic you'd stop going to them and take it to an even crappier mechanic?
Is someone able to address the elephant in the room?

[FGD135]

It is NOT the case that the Pearl contract was cancelled because of poor service.

I know that most of the Careflight staff arrived in the NT with this idea firmly in their minds. No doubt the idea was planted by the Careflight management - perhaps to "rev the troops up" and entrench the notion that it was Careflight that would rescue the poor people of the top end from the evil Pearl Aviation.


To the ex-NTAMS and Pearl staff, this was highly insulting and a little sickening.


To find the real reason for the termination, you only need to look at the decision taken in 2004 by the then NT government to renew the Pearl contract with NTAMS. At the time, Pearl were offering both a "cheap" service, with the clapped out old King Airs, and a more expensive option with newer aircraft. The Pearl management were recommending the latter option.


The NT government took the cheap option, and with the older, maintenance prone fleet, the downtime issue became one of several aspects that the NT government decided they wanted to improve (possibly as the result of a coronial inquiry).

So the NT government commissioned the Cornish Inquiry to look into wide ranging improvements across the whole of the top end aeromedical service delivery. This inquiry reported (via the "Cornish Report") in December 2008.


One of the recommendations that came out of that process was the renewal of the fixed wing fleet, but because of procurement rules related to government contracts, Pearl couldn't just go out and buy newer aircraft - the existing contract had to be cut short and a new tender called.


I wrote an earlier post to this thread on this same subject. That post can be found here:


http://www.pprune.org/5991732-post276.html

That post contains a link to the Cornish Report itself. Take a look. It is only a few pages long.

[swab]

Fair enough, I guess, so Pearl didn't "lose" the contract.

What I don't understand is why the need for the Cornish Report in the first place if things were going so well under Pearl?

"Obviously" (?) the NT govt weren't happy with the service delivery under Pearl and decided to have a look at what they could do to fix things.

I believe the tender also asked for the new operator to provide doctors and ambo's as well as the nurses, pilots and planes which CF has done via its helo ops (as well as paramedics and crewmen) in Sydney.
So wouldn't you think had they had some expertise in the field already?

I also don't understand how having unserviceable aircraft on Pearl's behalf isn't considered as poor service delivery. I mean, what would YOU call it?

As I understand on CF's behalf, as soon as Ausjet left the maintenance scene CF had 3 aircraft up and running within days.

Any CF has got it and time will tell if this biatching and moaning is warranted.

Good Luck to 'em.

[Under Dog]

Swab
Having read all your post's on this subject you seem to be naive or just come down in the last shower of rain. All these issues with Pearl have been thoroughly covered in this thread.

Regards
The Dog

[swab]

Yep, yer right! Definily the las shower.

[swab]

Gee, Careflight, no pilots of their own, no standards department, no senior nurse....how do they do it?

Injured station owner impressed with CareFlight response - ABC Darwin - Australian Broadcasting Corporation

Imagine how good they'll be when they are an entity in their own right!

[The Voice]

terrific to see that the NTG Opposition health spokesman was fully up to speed with things .. not

[maxgrad]

There are those that either go in to bat for the sake of company politics, or simply no idea of the facts....and there are those who know.
Bloody obvious when you read the posts.

Oh nice to see careflight take off at Tindal just going on dusk last night. Yeh sure they are concerned about roos!

Ask the graziers on stations, the community nurses and townspeople who know the service is no longer worth what some are letting off now....a cracker!

[lurker999]

they advertise all the time telling us how good they are.

they aren't?

[swab]

Maxgrad: Sour grapes?

[maxgrad]

Not.

Happy where I am.

Do the graziers and communities have sour grapes, no, they just want the service they should have and not one that is taking the region backwards with regards retrievals.

[slats11]

After a lot of talk early on, its all a bit quiet up north. How are things going now the service has been operating for a couple of years?

On a related note, the nt government has just cancelled the tender for provision of interstate aeromedical evacuation services (between darwin & adelaide, and darwin & brisbane).

[hurlingham]

Instead of bagging CF & Pearl, the NTG has a lot to answer for in the process, particularly the Minister resposible.

[Archer lad]

Whats it like?

Can anyone tell me about the job? What are they paid and what is the roster like. I can't find a copy of the contracts on AFAP.

Also what is the camera looking thing on the nose of the aircraft?

[kalavo]

It is a camera