While the Newfoundland and Labrador Department of Health reviews its the air ambulance service, people in Labrador say a plane should be stationed where it's needed.

Delays in getting medical transport from Labrador to the larger and better equipped hospitals in St. John's — sometimes leaving patients to wait for hours — have residents demanding that a plane, with its own medical crew, be stationed in Labrador.

Tracy Best, whose son once had to wait hours for a medical flight from Happy Valley-Goose Bay, has gathered 3,000 names on a petition demanding a stronger air ambulance presence.

Health Minister Jerome Kennedy says he has asked that a review of the service be completed as soon as possible.

Best said a review of the situation won't impede her plans to submit the petition to the legislature.

"It's still going ahead," she said. "It's already sent to St. John's and it's being formatted to the proper way to present it to the house of assembly. We're not stopping with the petition at all."

Health Minister Jerome Kennedy met last month with Best and the family of a premature baby that died this summer after the mother waited 11 hours for a plane to St. John's.

"I'm very troubled by it," Kennedy told CBC News about the situation. "There's no question that these are serious issues that have to be addressed because they affect people on a very real and practical basis."

The air ambulance service dispatches a medical team and aircraft from either St. John's or St. Anthony, in northern Newfoundland, when assistance is needed in remote parts of the province.

The region's doctors and Labrador City council have also said they'd like to see a second air ambulance plane and medical team stationed in the region, because of its isolation.