Helipad site a goer

An exuberant Member for South-West Coast Denis Napthine made the announcement on Friday 28 October in Portland on behalf of Planning Minister Matthew Guy.
Dr Napthine told Portland District Health chief executive officer John O’Neill that the minister had approved the development plan. Letters from the minister to Mr O’Neill and Glenelg Shire mayor Bruce Cross confirming the plan’s approval were sent from Melbourne on Friday.

Dr Napthine said coastal consent for the helipad had also been approved by the Department of Sustainability and Environment without the need for further on-ground survey work.
“All that is required is for the current geotechnical report to be updated and re-presented,” he said.
It is understood that substantial behind the scenes lobbying by Dr Napthine for the project to move forward came to fruition in the latter part of last week.
That lobbying was also supported by a very public community campaign, with Committee for Portland executive director Anita Rank believed to have been a major player in her persistent campaign of protesting loudly against government inaction on the issue.

It follows an extensive and lengthy campaign for a helipad which, for most of the past few years, has been stifled by a bureaucratic maze of red tape.

Mr O’Neil said the approval was the best news he had received for a long time.
“We were just getting bogged down, we would ask one government agency and receive one answer, then we’d receive a totally different answer from someone else — all we wanted to do was to find the best way forward,” he said.

Mr O’Neill said PDH had instructed its lawyers to start drawing up a lease for the helipad site with the council.
“Once that lease is signed by the two parties, then we can hand the construction of the helipad to the community,” he said.
“It will be good to inform the Blue Ribbon Foundation (Portland branch) and the many other people in the community who are stakeholders in this project, about this important development … it is the community’s project.”

Dr Napthine said the chances of survival for a critically-ill patient improves dramatically when expert medical care is obtained as quickly as possible — in extreme trauma cases, in what is known as the ‘golden hour’.
“An emergency helipad opposite the hospital will maximise the lifesaving benefit of the south-west rescue helicopter, which our community fought so hard to obtain,” he said.
“Since the south-west rescue helicopter began operating in 2009, it has average one emergency life saving evacuation from Portland every month, and most of these have involved the helicopter landing on the area designated for the helipad.
“The Ploughed Field is the best site for the helipad – it provides ready access for patients directly to and from the helicopter, and is the preferred site by pilots, ambulance officers, the hospital and the wider community.
“A properly constructed helipad on this site will ensure that it is available for use in emergencies 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, irrespective of the weather.”

STORY BY Bill Meldrum, PICTURE BY Josh Nash - Portland Observer