This afternoon, the mayors of Ruapehu, Taupo and Rotorua, met with the Minister of Health to discuss their very real concerns over NASO's proposed new air ambulance model. As a direct result of that meeting, Taupo and Rotorua have been allowed to tender for rescue helicopter bases in the tender. This is a win because It shows us all just how incredibly weak the NASO proposal is. If it was built on solid data, and if it really was addressing actual inefficiencies in the current air rescue system, NASO wouldn't have backed off. But it did and its inability to credibly defend the proposal shows that it is more about easing bureaucratic administration than actually providing a better service. But it's not a victory..."...The Minister could not give a definite assurance rescue helicopters would still be based in Rotorua and Taupo in future..." [http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/AK1804/S00555/rotoruataupo-to-be-included-in-helicopter-services-process.htm] Taupo and Rotorua need to keep on fighting to justify themselves as rescue helicopter bases, using science and data based arguments. It's no secret I used to be a soldier. In 2003, I was working with a Marine Corps colonel at the time some British soldiers had been isolated from their unit and killed by insurgents in Iraq. The colonel was livid "You people [everyone not from the place that keeps Mexico and Canada apart was 'you people']! You people, you just don't get it! Don't you know that you never have your troops more than 15 minutes away from a QRF [quick reaction force]? That way if they get hit, help is only 15 minutes away. If the QRF's on foot, then they're just around the block; if they're on trucks, maybe a klick or so away; if they're in helicopters then maybe in the next town - but always only 15 minutes away!!!!" That 15 minute standard defined where quick reaction forces were located... While the NASO tender sets a standard for the time from alert to take-off, it sets no similar standard for the time from take-off to the patient. That unspecified time is the crux of this argument. Our rescue helicopters are our quick reaction force in rural and alpine New Zealand...their locations should be defined by a clear standard based on the optimal response time from base location to patient location...that de facto standard balancing patient outcomes against the economics of light helicopter operation is probably around 30 minutes. Why does the NASO proposal not define a desirable take-off to patient time...? Because it's actually all about making bureaucratic administration easier..? No..? Then show us the supporting data, NASO...! There's a lot of angry people in Southland tonight and, I suspect, Coromandel...and, yes, it is time to start get really noisy about this...Te Anau, time to hit the streets and make your feelings known...Whitianga, your public rally's on the radar, tell the world it's on...3 May at the hangar... Keep emailing and writing to those ministers and NASO, don't let them off the hook one little bit... The Hon. Iain Lees-Gaolloway Minister for ACC iain.lees-galloway@parliament.govt.nz The Hon. Dr David Clark Minister of Health d.clark@ministers.govt.nz Min of Health NASO airambulance@naso.govt.nz Demand a direct response...don't let them hide behind their staff...it's well past time they took their leader's example and fronted publicly...