LifeFlight is the helicopter service that swiftly brings the acutely injured from smaller Maine hospitals to larger ones or, on occasion, carries the injured from an accident scene to a hospital. It sounds like an airborne ambulance but it is not, or it is not only that. It is a service of unique value to Maine that should be supported by the public through a bond.

The bipartisan legislative request for LifeFlight is $6 million to build helipads at hospitals, install weather-reporting systems in northern, western and eastern Maine, purchase teaching equipment to be used across Maine and help replace the current leased helicopters, LifeFlight has two, with larger purchased ones. The public money would be matched by at least an equal amount of private dollars. Given the budget shortage and many please for state bond money, it is a difficult request; given the public benefit and the reform that will force greater efficiencies from hospitals, it is an understandable one.

LifeFlight makes about 700 trips a year. Most of the people it transports have suffered from blunt trauma – car accidents, snowmobile or ATV crashes and some workplace accidents – and most are in rural or remote parts of the state. The patients are younger than average and are less likely to have insurance, a consideration that requires the owners of the service – Eastern Maine Healthcare and Central Maine Healthcare – each to contribute about $200,000 annually to make up the insurance deficit. A couple of studies show that using helicopters increases the number of “unexpected survivors” by about 5 percent overall, and one study showed a 24 percent increase in the number of unexpected survivors of blunt trauma.

Still, why should the public put up money for what is essentially medical equipment owned by hospitals? For several reasons that add to the public good. Properly assigned, LifeFlight saves money by shortening hospital times, returning patients to health faster. The bond would improve the quality of care by providing training for doctors who cannot train on the current helicopters because of space and weight limitations. More, the helicopter service connects rural Maine to broader top-notch tertiary health care, keeping the hospitals working together and providing patients with improved service.

Lawmakers have many worthy projects proposed for bonding, but they cannot afford to fund all of them. LifeFlight has demonstrated its value for saving lives, improving health, saving health-care dollars and strengthening ties among Maine’s hospitals. Gov. Baldacci and the Legislature would do well to offer this proposal to the voters.