Emergency medevac took 5 hours to arrive in Dehcho community

People in the Dehcho region of the Northwest Territories are questioning why it took about five hours for a medevac flight to respond to a recent emergency in Trout Lake.

An elder died and a man was in critical condition following a boating collision about a week ago. Now, some are calling for better emergency services for remote communities.

Allison Depelham lives in Fort Simpson but has worked in Trout Lake, where there is no nurse in the community of 100 people.

She said she felt helpless when there was an emergency.

"We all know that every hour you're waiting in an isolated community with no help or no support, it's not just one hour, it becomes three or four, each hour is an extremely long time waiting."

Kevin Menicoche, the Nahendeh MLA, says initially after the boating accident, people in Trout Lake couldn't get through to the emergency line at the health centre in Fort Simpson. They had to get the RCMP to pass on the message.

Depelham says then, people were told a medevac was on its way, but the plane didn't arrive until five hours later. She wants to see medevacs flying out of regional centres instead of Yellowknife.

Depelham says people have lost faith in medevac services, and the families deserve answers about why the flight took so long to arrive.