Martin Smith, 87, pictured, was taken to Alderney hospital with a suspected heart attack on the morning of Sunday 1 March, but only reached Guernsey on Tuesday evening by boat as the Skybus Islander aircraft used for medevacs was stuck in the Isles of Scilly due to severe weather.
During his 48-hour wait Mr Smith said he had not been particularly worried about himself.
‘I was convinced I had not had a heart attack – which I know now was completely wrong,’ he said.
‘I’ve had a fabulous life, and done everything I wanted to do. If I had popped my clogs, I would have been at peace with it. But what I was worrying about during those two days was what if this was a child or a young person with a family.
‘Nowadays there are lots of opportunities in Alderney, especially with remote working, but how would anyone convince their family to move here with this medevac cover?’
When Mr Smith fell ill, Skybus was operating Alderney emergency medevac services.
This cover had been put in place while Aurigny’s Twin Otter were being equipped and signed off, which did not happen until later that week.
Mr Smith said that when he had moved his family to Alderney in 1986, the situation had been completely different as Aurigny had been Alderney’s airline.
‘We had three planes and three pilots on the island. If there was a problem you could get off immediately, it was a marvellous service. The situation I experienced never occurred to us,’ he said. ‘But once Aurigny went to Guernsey the service to Alderney started to go downhill, to the point where we are now.’
After initially being treated at the PEH, Mr Smith, who had a quadruple by-pass in 2002, was flown to Southampton on Thursday as he needed specialist care.
However this time he said it had been a totally different experience, with Guernsey’s medevac provider Gama Aviation.
‘That was how it should be done, totally professional, transferred lying down into the plane, talked to and monitored throughout – it was perfect,’ he said.
The plane had flown over Alderney en route.
‘They told me they couldn’t land there because the runway is too short. We are spending £24m. on it, but is no one looking at making it slightly longer so we can use a more competent company, just like Guernsey have? If that is not feasible, can they tell us why?’
Both Guernsey and Jersey’s medevac service has been operated by Gama Aviation for over five years, however the contract is currently out to tender. Alderney’s medevac service is not part of this process.
After further tests, Mr Smith said he was hoping to be able to go home to Alderney in the next few days.
He added that since the incident he had received no communication from either Skybus or Aurigny.
‘The whole thing has been a series of rather strange events and hopefully it will have woken a few people up to Alderney’s medevac service,’ he said.
‘I’ve had not a word in explanation – some communication would be a good thing.
‘Whoever signed up to that agreement that Skybus would do the medevacs... well obviously it was not a very good agreement. It seems simple things have been complicated by politicians.’
Aurigny completed training on its new Alderney medevac service with the Twin Otter aircraft at the end of last week, after new patient lifts had been delivered to Southampton, Guernsey and Alderney.
Providing a dependable and timely medevac service is always Aurigny’s first and overriding priority,’ said Philip Saunders, chief commercial officer at Aurigny.
‘This is a truly invaluable service for the people of Alderney. We fully appreciate our responsibility to provide a reliable and robust service into the future.’