Despite how many people rely on the services of the Saskatchewan Air Ambulance, it hasn’t always been fully accessible to all types of patients.  

Dan Knisley, Director of Operations for SAA, explains that in the past, there weren’t a lot of in-province options for quick transport of larger, heavier patients who needed to be flown to receive healthcare. 

In fact, up until now, if a patient of significant weight needed to be airlifted to hospital, help was sought from outside the province, or patients were given a lengthy trip via ambulance. 

This changed on Tuesday, when the provincial government invested $3.5 million into retrofitting the King Air B200 aircraft, allowing for a wider stretcher, a broader doorway, an electronic lift system, enhanced personnel seating, and an upgraded telecommunication system. 

“This now gives us the capability to respond within our province and with our planes,” Knisley beamed.  

These improvements increase the patient weight limit to 400 pounds, which Knisley acknowledges won’t encompass every patient that may require a flight. 

“The weight limit is set just as a safety margin for our crews right now, but as things improve, we can see that weight limit increasing to allow heavier patients onboard the airplane.” 

To give an idea of just how fast the Air Ambulance is, Knisley says the plane can get from Saskatoon to Nipawin in 25 minutes, a trek that would take a vehicle about three hours.  

“We travel at about 350 miles an hour with this airplane. So, it puts the top of the province within about an hour and fifty minutes reach. We can be in Estevan within about 50 minutes, and quite regularly we go over to Edmonton which is about a one-hour trip in this airplane.” 

The Saskatchewan Air Ambulance plane operates 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, and makes about 1500 patient transports annually.