Medical charter flights to cut travel time for James Bay Cree

A medical air charter to transport patients from the remote Cree communities in the James Bay region of Quebec back and forth to the regional centres ofVal-d'Orand Montreal has been launched by a partnership of the Cree Board of Health and Social Services and Air Creebec.

"I'm really proud for this project to become a reality," said Bella Moses Petawabano, the board of health chairperson, after an inaugural flight Monday between Trudeau International Airport in Montreal and Chisasibi.

"It's been talked about since 2007."

The Cree Patient Air Shuttle will operate four to five timesa week between Chisasibiand, on alternating days, Montreal or Val-d'Or. Three Dash8-100 turboprop planes have beenspecially equipped for the flights.

The service will considerably reduce travel time for patients. Chisasibi Hospital is the only hospital in the James Bay region. People living here are often required to travel south to see a specialist, a journey that, even by air, can take all day via commercial flights.

"By having a dedicated patient shuttle, our patients will travel more quickly and comfortably to their appointments, specialist consultations, diagnostic tests and surgeries," said Chisasibi physician Dr. Darlene Kitty, president of the Council of Physicians, Dentists and Pharmacists of the Cree Board of Health and Social Services of James Bay.

Chisasibi Hospital has an emergency department and in-patient ward with 29 beds, but is not equipped or staffed to offer services such as delivering babies, surgery, cancer treatment, or advanced diagnostics such as MRIs.

A release from the Cree board of healthsaid that between April 2014 and March 2015, 8,427 patients were sent for medical treatment outside their home community.

Moses-Petawabano says the priority of the charter is to reduce travel time and improve service, but that will also save the Quebec health care system moneyby replacing the use of commercial flights for regular medical travel and possibly reducing the need forcostlyair ambulances.