by PETER OWENS
For many years, St Mary’s Catholic School in Gore has been involved in church and community matters. Now it has committed itself to another way of supporting the people of Eastern Southland. A new helipad is being constructed in the school grounds.
It will be located on the concrete court at the south end of the playground, about 100 metres from Gore Hospital. The construction of the helipad should be finished by the end of August. The use of a new helipad within walking distance of Gore Hospital will reduce the time it takes to airlift critically ill patients from Gore to specialist care.
St Mary’s School principal Annie Nelson said she is very pleased that the school could provide a place for the helicopter to land.
“Anything that extends people’s lives is everybody’s responsibility to help,” she said.
Ms Nelson said the school had many guidelines for what to do in circumstances where pupils’ safety could be compromised — and now it has one for what to do if a helicopter needed to land on the grounds.
The nearby Gore A&P Showgrounds have been used as the landing site ever since Seddon Memorial Hospital closed in 1999. After the rescue helicopter landed at the showgrounds, the specialist team on board would be taken by ambulance to Gore Hospital, 1.2km away, where they prepared the patient to be flown to Dunedin. An ambulance then took the patient and staff back to the helicopter for the return flight.
The Otago Regional Rescue Service helicopter chief pilot, Graeme Gale, said it will be “fantastic” to be able to land within walking distance of the hospital. “We can land there, offload our crew, they go into the hospital, package the patient up, straight in the helicopter, go, so it’s a very big deal, the difference it will make,” he said.
According to Mr Gale, a current problem is that, while St John had always made sure an ambulance was available, there could be an occasion when all the town’s three ambulances were out on calls. The time it took to land at the showgrounds, gather the patient and then take off again was about the same time as the 20 to 25 minutes flight time to Dunedin, he added.
There can also be events at the Gore A&P Showgrounds at times when the landing site was needed; the grounds get wet in winter, and lighting the area can be an issue. He said these problems have existed for a number of years.
The Otago Air Rescue Helicopter Service makes between eight and 15 visits to Gore each year, Mr Gale said.
Many of these callouts have been at times outside school hours, and he expected little disruption to the school’s pupils.
Gore Hospital chief executive, and Catholic parishioner, Karl Metzler said it was good news another landing site had been found, and that the time saved was important to “the golden hour that we talk about for that life-preserving care”.
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