Plane designed for medevacs in Ungava unveiled at ceremony

Ungava Tulattavik Health Centre professional services director Nathalie Boulanger says the new plane is a game changer for medical evacuations in Nunavik. (Photo by Cedric Gallant)

Ungava Tulattavik Health Centre unveiled its new plane Wednesday, engineered to medevac patients from the seven Ungava communities and that will be available at all times with a dedicated medical team.

“It is not just an upgrade, it is a game changer,” said Nathalie Boulanger, the centre’s professional services director, in a speech during a ceremony at the Kuujjuaq airport hangar.

She has worked in Nunavik for 30 years and said that “back then, medical evacuations felt more like extreme sports than organized health care.”

She has wanted this sort of plane for nearly 15 years.

“There will be a huge enhancement of safety for staff and patients,” Boulanger said.

Ungava Tulattavik Health Centre director Larry Watt unveils the new medevac plane to community members, and Makivvik executives. (Photo by Cedric Gallant)

Previously, smaller King Air or Otter passenger planes not designed to provide medical service were used to transport patients in and out of Ungava.

The new plane, a Dash-8 100, was engineered to have features that aid medevacs in Nunavik.

Its side cargo door is modified to have a built-in platform that’s at the same height as the stretchers. That makes it safer for health-care workers to avoid back injuries while putting loading a patient into the plane.

Previously, that work involved walking up or down the passenger plane’s steps and squeezing the stretcher inside.

Air Inuit executive chairperson Noah Tayara says this plane will save many lives. (Photo by Cedric Gallant)

An incubator for newborn babies is also included in the new plane. Before, the incubator had to be partially disassembled to fit through the door of the passenger plane.

Boulanger said this new plane could save 30 minutes because of that feature alone.

All medical supplies are anchored to the plane, with access to storage for medical equipment, and the plane is heated at all times.

Its interior can also be adapted to the needs of the operation. There are two stretchers, which can be adapted to three, and up to 14 people can be seated.

“We are going from the stone age to the age of electricity,” Boulanger added in a French interview after her speech.

There were 917 medical evacuations by air in one year for 2023-24 on the Ungava coast, for the more than 7,000 residents in the seven villages, A news release issued Wednesday by Ungava Tulattavik Health Centre said.

The plane’s cargo door is modified to accommodate stretchers and incubators. (Photo by Cedric Gallant)

Boulanger said that in extreme cases, health officials can call in a second plane to assist with a medevac.

If the Hudson coast is in need of an urgent medevac, the new Dash-8 100 will have the capacity to go and complete it, health centre director Larry Watt said.

“It is a very autonomous aircraft, it does not need a generator or a heater, it is versatile for public health,” he said in an interview.

The plane has been in testing for the past couple of weeks and already completed a medevac of several people who had suffered carbon monoxide poisoning.

“A real workhorse,” Watt called the plane.

Its acquisition is the result of a deal between health centre, the Nunavik Regional Board of Health and Social Services, and Air Inuit. Funding for the plane’s use, which is $8 million per year for 10 years, came from the health board, Watt said.

Noah Tayara, Air Inuit’s executive chairperson, said that with the right winds this plane can go from Salluit to Montreal without a fuel stop.

The Dash-8 100 comes from Italy. It was purchased used but has only 26,000 hours of flight time already on it. It took a team of engineers one year to modify it for medevacs.

“Anything that we modify has to be approved by Transport Canada,” Tayara said in an interview.

With the new plane, “the sky is the limit” said Tayara. “Because Nunavik is growing, maybe the Hudson coast will need one, maybe Tulattavik will need another.”

The interior of the modified plane includes space for multiple stretchers and for medical workers (Photo by Cedric Gallant)