Hospital needs helipad
Long-term solution sought after recent closure, says Kitchener mayor
KITCHENER — As downtown Kitchener grows around the helipad serving the city’s two hospitals, other options like a new location or rooftop may need to be considered.
The helipad on Wellington Street South, a block from King Street, was closed last Wednesday when a tall construction crane was erected in its flight path.
“It’s brought to light that we’re going to need to deal with that issue of a helipad in the downtown core,” said Kitchener Mayor Berry Vrbanovic.
Helicopters now need to land at the Region of Waterloo International Airport in Breslau and an ambulance will cover the rest of the distance to either hospital.
Hospital officials said Friday that will add 15 to 20 minutes to the trip but should not affect patient care. It’s not known when the helipad will reopen.
“From a city point of view, I think we’ve been fortunate to have a helipad right downtown and close to our hospitals,” Vrbanovic said on Sunday.
The downtown helipad gets 100 flights a year, bringing patients to Grand River Hospital and St. Mary’s General Hospital from surrounding areas or taking them to a larger centre for more specialized care. Critically injured patients most often are transported directly from the scene by helicopter to Toronto.
The crane was put up for a condominium development going in on Victoria Street — One Hundred, Vrbanovic said. The project is slated to have two towers, 15- and 19-storeys high.
When another condominium tower went up on Victoria, there was no issue with the helipad’s operation.
Vrbanovic said the helipad is federally regulated, and there are no local regulations related to height around a helipad like at an airport and that would not be considered as for a building permit.
The hospitals said they were notified on Wednesday morning by Ornge, which provides air ambulance services in Ontario.
A spokesperson for Ornge said it was requested to transfer a patient and upon arrival the flight crew noticed a crane obstructing the path, and was able to safely alter their approach and departure paths.
The agency, which provides air ambulance services in Ontario, is consulting with Nav Canada and Transport Canada about the obstruction and possible alternate routes to the helipad.
A local paramedic who works for Ornge contacted The Record last week because he was concerned the crane went up quickly and there were no lights on it.
Once the developer was notified, Vrbanovic said lighting was put up right away.
“That certainly has helped,” he said.
He was pleased to see that “everyone jumped in” when the issue came to light to find solutions to the closure, such as a different flight path.
The hospital said it would be meeting with Transport Canada on Monday.
But long-term solutions will need to be considered as land in that area is redeveloped. While Vrbanovic said he would prefer to keep the helipad close to the hospitals, “there’s many communities where that is not possible.”
The helipad was built there in 1991, replacing the previous one at Uniroyal-Goodrich’s Strange Street plant after Transport Canada revoked that site’s licence in 1988 due to deficiencies.
It’s on the site of the former Domtar Packaging. The plant closed in 1991, but an agreement made the previous year with the city’s two hospitals to build the helipad on a grass field near the plant entrance went ahead.
At the time, it was expected to be used 15 to 20 times annually.