Doc wrote:He's IN politics! Can't even say...."we have 3 pilots over the age of 40....." without getting all PC about it. Total BS.
You’re being unreasonable, Doc – there will always be things I have a responsibility to not disclose, but I’ll always do my best to tell you why, and in this case you were also told by others that what you had heard was not true.
I’m sorry about your colleague, but his being over 40 had no bearing on why he was not selected for an interview at Ornge.
Conquest Driver wrote:I find it interesting that the Coroner is allegedly involved. Will, can you tell me the last time a SOA carrier had a fatal accident involving ORNGE personnel or patients
The point, ultimately, is that an examination of these documents, as well as a consideration of the highly credible authorities behind them, and the actions that the government then undertook to foster the creation of Ornge as a result, indicates that there was a very strong consensus that the “Excellent Patient Care” within the “great Air Ambulance system” that Impress was referring to did not exist as such, though I do want to make clear that these reports pointed to systemic, organizational issues – a lot of excellent staff from the old system continues their work under Ornge today.
And regarding the Coroner’s report: As I said, I’m referring to events that led to the
formation of Ornge, and hence took place prior to its existence. In this case, I’m citing the 2001 McCorkindale Coroner’s Inquest, which recommended that the existing Air Ambulance Program be reviewed, and stated that ‘There certainly was no agreement that the air ambulance program was useful or effective.’
Other concerns with the system as it existed at the time were raised in the Donner Report (1994), the Kaneshakumar Inquest (1999), the Commission on Accreditation of Medical Transport Systems Audit (2002), and then the 2002 and 2005 Auditor General Reports. All of these were influential in the creation of Ornge.
It would be more than a little cumbersome to get into the minutiae of all of these documents in this forum, and I’m not going to do it, but they should be available through their respective agencies if you are interested.
With regards to your other inquiry, I hope you’ll understand that I’m not in a position to discuss relationships between Ornge and SOA carriers on this forum in any regard whatsoever.
2R wrote:Have they ran out of blank cheques yet ?
Anyone can pretend to run a business when you use blank cheques.I suppose that is what is meant by non-profit.
The shareholders will expect a return eventually and that is when the brown stuff will hit the rotating aerofoil.
Can i buy a vow_l ?
Ornge does not have shareholders – we are a non-profit, charitable organization. An important contrast between Ornge and the prior system, in fact, is that we seek to reinvest our gains back into Ornge itself, for the betterment of our services. The only ‘return’ we are creating is an innovative, world-class transport medicine system for the benefit of Ontarians, and we are delivering it.
Turbo-Prop wrote:Its just like STARs. Theres STARs society that is non profit and they do fundraising and go to all the communities and blow smoke up their arse about how they need to support them so the community can have coverage. Then there's all the other companies there that have actual contracts with the Alberta government to fly medevacs.
I can’t speak to the specifics on how STARS is structured, Turbo-Prop, but Ornge has a performance agreement with the government of Ontario for the provision of medical transport services – that is a contract. Ornge is responsible for handling services via a direct relationship with the province; we don’t offer specific areas any kind of specialized ‘coverage’, and we work everywhere in Ontario, with our priorities aligned by medical need in real time.
theabcman wrote:I have heard from some of Ornge's pilots over a few beers, that they do a lot of non critical calls. Are they not just a critical care carrier?
We are not just a critical care carrier - Ornge is tasked to handle primary, advanced and critical care in flight, depending on what is medically necessary. We also operate a critical care land ambulance program.
AnotherFlyOnTheWall wrote:Hey Shill, a few questions...
impress wrote:Well, bitter yes, jealous, not really...
Doc wrote:What is wrong with asking who ends up paying and how much?
In addition to the fact that it goes without saying that I certainly wouldn’t be in a position to start posting contracts and financial information on the AVCanada message board, I’d like to make a proposal to you that I hope will keep us from going in circles that others on this board are neither interested in and, based on some of these posts, pretty sick of.
I think what some of you don’t share with Ornge, really, is perspective. Is our vision of transport medicine in the province of Ontario less Spartan than yours? Almost certainly. But what you regard as fruitless, we regard as excellence, and the foundation of an approach that we hope will one day be the model for transport medicine systems around the world. Your ideal of opulence is our idea of a standard: A demanding one, for certain, but also one that befits the quality of our people and the importance of the work that we do.
What you see only as unnecessary expense in the present, we see as an investment in something that is absolutely necessary not only for the present, but even more so for the future.
What you see as regional or governmental interference in your personal enterprises, we see as consolidating and centralizing for the ultimate benefit of all Ontarians, creating greater efficiency in a health care system that should be protected to operate in as public a spirit as possible, especially in terms of assets – airplanes and helicopters, for example – that are both very costly and relatively scarce.
What you see from an aviation and/or taxpayer savings perspective, we see from the perspective of physicians, paramedics, aviators, educators, researchers, businesspeople, and every other specialized group of people whose expertise combines to form a true transport medicine system – one that is responsible for doing what they are qualified to affirm should be done. More than anything, this is probably at the root of why we see things as differently as we do.
So, ultimately, it is pointless for us to go back and forth like this – some of you simply think transport medicine should aspire to be something that we do not think it should aspire to be, and this forum is simply not a place where a discourse about that is possible regardless, given the limitations and confidentialities I have to observe as well as your total, unaccountable anonymity.
As time goes on, I hope that you’ll become more open-minded about the bigger picture of our ambitions, and understand that what we are doing is trying to create something that could very genuinely mean the difference between saving life and losing it. All of our initiatives, no matter how broadly strategic or immediately irrelevant you may perceive them to be, are ultimately centered upon excellence in patient care, because a system that preserves life, above anything else that has been discussed here, is what people will
really hold us accountable for, and rightfully so.
I hope that, with civility, we can concur that this difference in perspective is what has put us at an impasse that can’t really be argued. I think the perspective of people who prefer a less comprehensive and ambitious system is actually very well understood at Ornge – it just isn’t shared. Conversely, maybe you can say the same?
Apologies to everyone on the AVCanada forums who were frustrated with the turn this thread took.