Bermuda’s only resident air ambulance has stopped operating due to the low number of flights it was being asked to carry out.Eloise Bell, vice president of Bermuda Air Medivac (BAM), told The Royal Gazette she and co-owner Sheldon Smith decided to call time on the service in November after not flying for three months.“It’s not that we wanted to get rid of it, it’s that we were forced to do it,” she said. “We got no support from anyone.”The pair are hopeful they can revive the business with the help of investors but for now, their Cessna Citation S2 plane is sitting idle in New York, where it is cheaper to store.Patients in Bermuda who need to be transported overseas for emergency treatment must currently wait for another plane to arrive here from the States.Ms Bell, an emergency room nurse, said Bermuda Air Medivac used to be the sole choice for several health insurers when they needed to transport their patients abroad.But the number of trips fell sharply, she added, when the health management company which coordinates patient flights, Canadian Medical Network, began operating a bidding process.The change meant US air ambulance companies, using Lear jets, could bid for the flights and offer a cheaper service than BAM, whose plane costs $14,500 for a five-hour round trip.“As a result we got very few trips and as a result we can’t operate under so few trips a month,” Ms Bell said. “In November, we had not had a trip since August.“August 13 was the last trip we had and in October I know there were six trips back and forth out of Bermuda. We were here and we did not get one trip.“That was the thing that put the nail in the coffin. We decided in November to temporarily shut the business down. We were losing money.”BAM was set up with a $2 million donation from philanthropist David Barber in 2005 and has flown hundreds of patients to hospitals on the east coast of North America and the Caribbean.Ms Bell said Mr Barber stipulated that she and Mr Smith, one of BAM’s pilots, could have the plane if they operated the air ambulance service for five years.“We do own the aeroplane now,” she said. “We have done it for almost seven years and, yes, we can sell the plane.“[But] we have ... had some talks with other people who want us to keep the business going. We are in the stage now where we are sending proposals off to different people to see if they want to inject some money. We are looking for investors.”Bermuda Hospitals Board (BHB) called last year for the air ambulance to gain international certification so it could become the carrier of choice for all patients needing overseas treatment.Ms Bell claimed the statement had a bad effect on business as people believed BAM’s plane wasn’t fit to carry out flights.She said air ambulances in the US got voluntary certification to give them a competitive edge and that at least two companies who were flying to Bermuda did not have it.BAM’s plane, she added, was declared safe and its medical services competent by an independent auditor.A BHB spokeswoman said: “As we have stated before, we are very supportive of having a local air ambulance service as there are clear benefits to patients who need to be flown out of Bermuda quickly for emergency treatment.“International certification is the standard for air ambulance services around the world to be considered by hospitals and we would use a local service that provided the same assurance of quality.”Michelle Jackson, vice president of group insurance at the Argus Group, said the health insurer took the view when BAM began operating that since it was owned by Bermudians and based here, its services should be used.“Since there were no regulations in place for air ambulance services in Bermuda, we hired an independent consultant to assess this new business and to determine if it was able to offer a safe service,” she said.“The company passed this test and subsequently Argus began using the company regularly.”Ms Jackson added: “As a private insurer, Argus is responsible to our clients and our shareholders to ensure that we work with quality providers at a fair price.“We have been in conversation with Bermuda Air Medivac to ensure that they obtain an American air ambulance service accreditation and to ensure that their prices are competitive to those of air ambulances based in the United States.“We look forward to the successful awarding of the accreditation to Bermuda Air Medivac and thereafter continuing the active use of this Bermudian-based service.”She said Argus appreciated lives could be saved by providing faster access to critical care not available in Bermuda. “With that in mind, we look forward to the resuming of normal operations by Bermuda Air Medivac Ltd.”