The Darling Downs South West community is celebrating a key milestone with Surat Gas companies Shell QGC, Santos, Arrow Energy and Origin, who have ensured critical aeromedical services have been available to not only their employees, but also the broader community, for more than 10 years.
Today, delegates from SGAS, Queensland Health, supporters and LifeFlight crew members joined LifeFlight Patron, the Governor of Queensland Her Excellency the Honourable Dr Jeannette Young PSM at the Clive Berghofer LifeFlight centre in Toowoomba, to celebrate the partnerships which have made such positive contributions to the Darling Downs South West community.
LifeFlight Australia has successfully provided aeromedical services to the region for over 15 years, all due to the community, government, sponsors and partners joining forces to make sure the emergency service was active and available.
“When you get to a job that’s a real lifesaving job, the community are so open and so welcome and so thankful that we are there. We provide that retrieval service back to high class medical care, which just didn’t exist before. The jobs we do out in South West Queensland save lives,” said LifeFlight Pilot Dave Hampshire.
A key contributor to the region has been the LifeFlight Surat Gas Aeromedical Service (SGAS) which has been at the forefront of delivering over a decade of operation, performing more than 1800 life-saving missions from its helicopter bases in both Toowoomba and Roma.
SGAS joined forces with LifeFlight in 2011 and significantly increased the ability to contribute to the well-being of people living in the Darling Downs South West, while also providing around the clock aeromedical service for Surat Gas companies Shell QGC, Santos, Arrow Energy and Origin.
LifeFlight SGAS complements and supports the existing network of RACQ LifeFlight Rescue community helicopters, with both services tasked by Retrieval Services Queensland on behalf of Queensland Health, on missions for the community.
“This model developed in the Darling Downs South West region with our partners SGAS, Queensland Health, RACQ plus all levels of government, and the community enables LifeFlight to deliver an incomparable aeromedical service to the people here,” said LifeFlight Operations General Manager Brian Guthrie.
“Each of LifeFlight’s partners contributes to ensuring that between us, we created an incredible service which continues to provide world class health care to those living and working in some of our most remote communities.”
Over the past decade since LifeFlight SGAS choppers took to the skies, the aeromedical teams have responded to varied emergencies ranging from winching injured hikers from remote locations, to airlifting a motorcyclist who collided with an emu.
SGAS’s commitment to assisting in providing community aeromedical coverage to this vast region, includes donating an essential 150 flying hours each year and additional coverage of community taskings.
“We’re proud to be helping save lives, and we’re excited to see how the service has developed since 2011,” said SGAS spokesperson Michael Todd.
“The need for immediate emergency response is imperative in regional and remote areas both to the industry and to the broader community.”
One of the most important services the aeromedical crews provide, is to transfer patients from smaller medical facilities to larger hospitals, for Queensland Health.
“Retrieval Services Queensland forms the backbone of the state’s integrated aeromedical system, centrally coordinating the clinical and logistic tasking of medical aviation assets, across the whole of Queensland. LifeFlight’s fleet of community helicopters and air ambulance jets, are an integral and valued component of this vital service,” said Dr Mark Elcock PSM, Executive Director of Aeromedical Retrieval and Disaster Management Branch.
“The synergy between Retrieval Services Queensland, LifeFlight and its partners has both saved and changed the lives of sick and injured Queenslanders in this region, by ensuring equitable access to a professional, world-class aeromedical service today and into the future.”
“We look forward to continuing to work with LifeFlight, its partners and supporters in meeting the future aeromedical needs of communities in this region.”
The first SGAS mission on record for Toowoomba was to pick up a staff member from a gas site near Surat on 27th April, 2011.
In Roma, the SGAS crew helped a 63 year old man with neck injuries from a car crash, as their first mission on 15th May, 2011.
Dave Hampshire has been there since day one, in Roma.
“We got there at 7.30 in the morning and and we had tasks from about 10 o’clock that day. There wasn’t a lot there when we first got there, we had to set it all up when we arrived. The reception by the community was just fantastic. It was very uplifting for us,” he said.
When the LifeFlight SGAS service began, the teams were flying in Bell 412 helicopters.
Demand for the service grew quickly and crews were responding to missions across a vast area of the state.
In 2018, the Roma and Toowoomba bases introduced state of the art AW139 helicopters incorporating the latest technology with a custom designed aeromedical mission system ensuring the highest safety and medical capabilities designed to take up to 2 patients at a time.
Later that year, the Toowoomba SGAS and RACQ LifeFlight Rescue choppers, crew and support staff moved to the new, state of the art Clive Berghofer LifeFlight Centre in Toowoomba, further enhancing what was already an exceptional service for the local community.
“The community, corporate and government partnerships with LifeFlight continue to grow and benefit the Darling Downs South West Queensland,” said Mr Guthrie.
The Roma service is looking to the future in Maranoa, with plans underway to build a new base at Roma Airport commencing in 2022, with funding secured from both the community and the Australian Government’s Building Better Regions Fund.
Members of the community are welcome to become ‘a local legend’ and join LifeFlight’s community fundraising appeal – LifeFlight Roma Base Upgrade – LifeFlight
