Celebrating 27 YEARS of Air Ambulance Service Ontario's air ambulance system was established in 1977 to transport critically ill patients to hospital. Ontario was the first province with a helicopter air ambulance system. The same year, the Ministry of Health also developed and implemented a training system for critical care flight paramedics, who perform advanced life support and controlled medical acts during air transport.

The service has become an integral component of the larger emergency health system in communities across the province. The air ambulance system also transports specially trained neonatal teams from facilities such as the Hospital for Sick Children and the McMaster University Medical Centre. These teams travel to outlying hospitals to provide emergency intervention and transportation to premature babies. More than 17,000 patients are transported each year by Ontario's air ambulance system.

Ontario's air ambulance system is regarded as one of the largest and most complex in the world. Flight paramedics are trained at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre and take direction from doctors at the local medical bases. Three of the five air ambulance bases (Toronto, Sudbury and Thunder Bay) use helicopters, while Timmins and Sioux Lookout use fixed-wing aircraft.

Photo by P. Dinshaw © 1996

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