“Out of province ambulance transfers are an essential component of the public health care system and should be affordable and accessible for all Islanders,” says Premier Robert Ghiz. “When a physician makes the decision to have a patient transferred to a facility outside the province for specialized care, financial concern should not be an issue for the patient or their families. Our government recognizes that ambulance transfer services to other facilities outside the province should be funded as part of the public health system and we are delivering on our promise to Islanders.” “Until recently, patients requiring health care at another facility outside the province, were required to pay a portion of the costs,” said Doug Currie, Minister of Health. ”Now patients who have been referred to another facility outside the province for medical care and require transportation by ambulance and attendance by a paramedic, will no longer have to pay an ambulance fee.”

The costs of a ground trip to Moncton, Halifax, Saint John and Fredericton by ambulance, ranges from $550 to $800, and the patient used to be required to pay a user fee of $150. Island EMS provides approximately 500 patient trips from Prince Edward Island to health care facilities in other provinces each year.

Emergency air ambulance is another method of transporting patients who require urgent, critical or specialty care at a facility outside the province. The decision to use emergency air transfer is made by the attending physician in consultation with the referral facility, physicians and air ambulance service.

Island residents are no longer required to pay air ambulance user fees of $750 per trip. The total cost of a one-way trip from Prince Edward Island to health care facilities in the Maritimes is $10,800 by helicopter and $6,500 by plane. Approximately 60 patients are transported by air ambulance to facilities outside the province each year.

The elimination of out of province ambulance transfer fees is a $120,000 investment in healthcare for all Islanders.