Four sites to consider for Ballarat helipad

BALLARAT is one step closer to having a helipad, after the state government announced its decision to build the facility at the Ballarat Health Services Base Hospital. Health Minister David Davis made the announcement yesterday, after making a last-minute appearance in Ballarat to attend a meeting with the Ballarat Helipad Implementation Working Group.Mr Davis said the government was considering four possible locations for the helipad, but that list has not yet been made public.It is believed the four locations were shortlisted from a list of eight possible sites that were presented to the working group in July, including a previously mooted option on top of a Base Hospital multi-storey carpark.Mr Davis said he expected the four options to be made public on Monday, when he is due to receive a full report into the issue.“...the answer is we will be building a helipad at Ballarat Base Hospital,” Mr Davis said.“There’s no doubt it will go ahead.”Reacting to the news yesterday, Ballarat helipad campaigners Carole Simmons and James Kerr said the decision was the culmination of almost 10 years of lobbying.An air ambulance helped to save Mr Kerr’s daughter’s life in 2002, after the 15-year-old was involved in a serious car accident and had to be airlifted to the Royal Children’s Hospital. The teenager was rushed to the Ballarat Base Hospital before being taken by road ambulance to the Western Oval at Redan, where paramedics worked for hours to stabilise her before the air ambulance could leave.Mr Kerr’s daughter survived and is now completing a degree in welfare at university.Mrs Simmons husband Graham was not so lucky.The 53-year-old suffered a fatal brain haemorrhage in 2001, after waiting four-and-a-half hours for a helicopter to arrive from Melbourne.Mr Kerr said a helipad in Ballarat would save lives.