Page 6 - August 2015 Volume 9, Number 8

LifePort medical stretchers were added to the interior of Starship’s King Air 350.
“The King Air 350 was selected because it represents the leading edge of turboprop aircraft performance and technology ...
It provides the highest speeds, longest range, quietest cabin and greatest reliability and safety of any turboprop aircraft in its class ...”
Mike Toogood, Managing Director, Skyline Aviation
Funding Care
for Young Patients
Supporting the hospital is the Starship Foundation, a social-profit organization that raises funds so Starship Children’s Hospital can better care for its young patients. Donations provided by the foundation are extra to government funding that the hospital receives. Through the huge generosity of corporations, individuals, community groups, trusts and foundations, in 2014 more than NZ$6.5 million from the Foundation funded a range of initiatives, including hospital equipment and projects, refurbishments, pediatric research and professional development, play therapy and comfort items, and community and family support.
4 • KING AIR MAGAZINE
The Starship Foundation provides NZ$1.5 million annually to help fund the Starship National Air Ambulance Service, which brings children from all over New Zealand to the hospital to receive the life- saving care that they need. This amount is a subsidy to the full cost of the ambulance service, which
is also covered by relevant district health boards in the country; there is no cost to the patient. The air ambulance flies a dedicated retrieval team that specializes in the care of children. Issues the patients are experiencing vary from complications arising from normal childhood illnesses such as the flu to accidents (drowning, car crashes, sporting injuries), as well as children suffering from heart conditions, seizures and meningitis. A retrieval team is on standby at all times and helps stabilize the children where necessary, then brings them back to Starship’s Pediatric Intensive Care Unit where they can receive the care they need.
SEPTEMBER 2015