Transport from remote locations in Saskatchewan had previously relied on road and rail facilities, but often meant a long, uncomfortable and difficult trip over unprepared roadways.

The air ambulance service, with its main base at Regina, could make the difference between life and death for a critical patient, serving to connect to thousands of residents in rural Saskatchewan and answer emergency calls over 160 million acres of farmland.

From its dispatch centres, the aircraft were directed to ferry patients with pneumonia, tuberculosis, polio, perforated ulcers and heart failure, to name some of the cases that called for expedient transport to hospitals.

When the patient was picked up, the pilot could radio ahead to ensure that an ambulance is waiting at the airport for rapid transport to a hospital in Regina, Saskatoon or Prince Albert.

On-location photography of Wings of Mercy, including aerial sequences, was completed by the camera crew of Lawrence Cherry and Wally Sutton, with sound editing by Clifford Griffin.