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VOL. 24 NO. 52
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Power line price tag increases
Trauma response quickens PEOPLE IN need of advanced trauma care will be flown out faster thanks to a pilot project just introduced here. Offered by the Northern Health Authority in conjunction with the B.C. Ambulance Service, paramedics can now decide if a patient needs to be airlifted out for more specialized care before arriving at the hospital. The idea is to save time that’s essential in dealing with critical cases. “Before March 1, physicians in Terrace's Mills Memorial Hospital were the only people who could activate the critical care transport paramedic team and aircraft to rush a critically ill or injured patient to Prince George or Vancouver,” said chief operating officer of BC Ambulance services, Les Fisher. “This not only used valuable time, but in some cases, the airplane might already be transporting another patient with less serious injuries.” Alerting the critical care transport team means a fixed wing plane is kept on standby and its crew is alerted. “What it does for the patient is it puts that plane on standby mode so it can't do a routine transfer to the hospital,” said Norene Parke, the BC Ambulance Service’s Terrace unit chief. If there were two or three people hurt, paramedics could potentially put two or three planes on standby, she added. “It's all about patient care and at the end of the day we're all one big team whether it's from the paramedic in the pre-hospital setting to the doctors and nurses in emergency and the trauma hospital,” Parke said. Patients would be sent to Vancouver, Victoria, Prince George or BC Children's
Wednesday, April 11, 2012
LAUREN BENN PHOTO
NORENE PARKE, Terrace’s unit chief for BC Ambulance Services, shows how she would use her radio to call for a medevac flight and crew to be put on standby for a critically injured patient. Hospital in Vancouver depending on the nature of their injuries. Once paramedics get the patient to the hospital, the physician attending the patient then has 30 minutes to decide whether the aircraft will be sent here to pick up the patient. “Our whole thought process is from the time of in-
sult (injury) until the patient gets to definitive care that we want to lessen that time frame,” said Parke. “Patient outcomes are directly attributed to that length of time.” “When you look at trauma calls, the survivability in the north is the lowest in the province,” Parke said, adding this is due to it taking
longer to get patients to the care they need because of the distances involved. Terrace-based physician Dr. Geoff Appleton, the Northern Health Authority’s northwestern health director also pointed to the idea of speeding up the ordering of a medevac flight.
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BC HYDRO has pushed the price tag of its Northwest Transmission Line past what was regarded as an upper-end cost just over a year ago. The new figure of $561 million is listed in the provincial crown corporation's service plan for the years 2012 to 2015 and was posted to its website in February. It's more than the range of prices provided in late 2010 – from $364 million to $525 million – and substantially more than the $404 million that was being commonly used in press releases and other government pronouncements for several years. “As you get further along in detail and in understanding [costs can rise],” said BC Hydro official Greg Reimer of the project to run a 287 kV transmission line 344 km from BC Hydro's Skeena Substation south of Terrace to Bob Quinn on Hwy 37 North. He said final details of purchase contracts and regulatory requirements for fish and wildlife compensation contributed to the increased cost figure. “BC Hydro has refined ... project costs as we concluded procurement and contract negotiations and finalized key aspects of the project, including regulatory requirements for fish and wildlife compensation; as a result we are confident of this figure,” said Reimer of the new $561 million total. Despite the new cost figure, Reimer said the transmission line will benefit the area and province. “This particular project is a good project for British Columbia,” he said of its ability to provide stable and cost efficient power to mining companies and others in the northwestern portion of the province and to carry power from hydro-electric projects to the BC Hydro system. BC Hydro has tendered the largest contract tied to the transmission line, that of the design and building of the line itself. This went to the partnership of Valard Construction and Burns and McDonnell. Valard is the contractor and Burns McDonnell is the designer. BC Hydro has also signed financial impact benefits agreements with the First Nations in recognition of the line that will go over their traditional territory and the Nisga'a Lisims Government for the portion of the line that will go over land covered by the Nisga'a land claims treaty. And while BC Hydro now says it is confident of its final cost, it has not tendered all of its contracts for the project. Still to come, for instance, is the contract to build a substation at Bob Quinn and to make improvements at the Skeena Substation. Companies either buying power from BC Hydro or selling power will connect at Bob Quinn while the connection at the Skeena Substation ties the transmission line into BC Hydro's provincial grid. The more the line costs, the more financial exposure there is for BC Hydro customers and taxpayers.
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Helping Hands
Terrace Housing
National players
Charity expands in response to increased need for its assistance \COMMUNITY A14
Real estate heats up along with spring its bringing a better market \NEWS A11
Two Terrace ringette players hit the national stage this week \SPORTS 22