BC’s Minister of Health says a $300,000 commitment from the province should help Angel Flight East Kootenay fill an essential role in the region.
The BC Government announced earlier this week they would be provide the funding toward the local non-profit’s operating expenses, as they offer cost-free travel for health care services in Kelowna.
Minister of Health Adrian Dix says talks with Columbia River Revelstoke MLA Doug Clovechok and Susan Clovechok with the RDEK helped the Province decide how they would support Angel Flight going forward.
“Its a charitable organization, its volunteer led, has a lot of support in the community,” Dix says. “Talked about it with lots of people and decided that this would be a good thing for us to do as we expand access to healthcare services everywhere.”
Dix says Angel Flight has received plenty of support locally, both from community groups and from the Regional District of East Kootenay.
He says the provincial funding should be seen as a pilot project of sorts for the program.
“We wanted to give it sufficient resources so that we could see its impact on people over a couple of years,” Dix says. “Its obviously non-emergency, we have an emergency service with the BC Emergency Health Services, the ambulance service, but I think they play an interesting role and we want to work with them.”
Angel Flight East Kootenay President and Founder Brent Bidston expects some of the funding will go toward improving the aircraft, along with hiring contractors for bookkeeping and administrations.
The non-profit service has seen a significant increase in passengers over the past two years, with the number of patients flown growing from 110 in 2021 to 570 in 2022.
– BC Minister of Health Adrian Dix
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