Advertisement 1

Frustrations boil over at slow ambulances

Article content

If you had a heart attack in Brockville, an ambulance would be at your door in four minutes, 46 seconds on average.

Advertisement 2
Story continues below
Article content

In Athens, it would take an ambulance an agonizing 19 minutes and 18 seconds to get there.

A variation on those numbers has existed for more than a decade and Athens Mayor Herb Scott is becoming increasingly frustrated that nothing ever seems to change.

Article content

“When you have a set time for a person with a stroke to get the clot-busting drug in Kingston, or somebody with a heart attack who has to get to the hospital, 19 minutes doesn’t cut it,” Scott told his Leeds and Grenville colleagues this week.

“Something has to be done – I don’t know what it is, but something has to be done.”

Scott said he didn’t expect the same response times as the better-served urban areas in Leeds and Grenville, but that his residents deserve better service.

Advertisement 3
Story continues below
Article content

He added that he gets the same “we’ll-look-into-it” response from the Leeds and Grenville Paramedic Service whenever he raises the response-time issue.

“Nothing ever seems to happen,” Scott said. “Quite frankly, my council is getting frustrated, I’m getting frustrated.”

Scott got immediate support from his colleagues on the Joint Services Committee of Leeds and Grenville, with Mayor Brant Burrow of Elizabethtown-Kitley suggesting that the committee should express a “strong political will” to deal with the response times and have staff bring in options to make it happen.

Brockville Mayor Jason Baker agreed, adding a coming study on the location of a new Brockville ambulance station might help Athens’ response times.

Advertisement 4
Story continues below
Article content

One of the options would see the new station located north of the city to better serve the surrounding area. Baker said the study should indicate clearly how the various station options would affect ambulance timing to help with the committee’s decision.

“Each and every day that the response times are where they’re at, we’re putting a risk in place that we’re not comfortable with,” Baker said.

Prescott Mayor Brett Todd said there is a two-tier ambulance system in the counties in which the northern Leeds municipalities get a slower service than others.

Todd said the problem has been discussed for years and he shares Scott’s frustrations that nothing ever seems to get done.

The issue comes down to money, Todd said, and the committee must decide whether it wants to spend more money on ambulances to correct the imbalance in response times.

Advertisement 5
Story continues below
Article content

Todd added that he is in favour of spending the additional money.

Merrickville-Wolford Mayor Doug Struthers made the same point, adding the issue comes down to money. The municipalities have to be prepared to spend more on ambulances, staff and perhaps a new station if they want to deal with the problem, he said.

Merrickville-Wolford (14 minutes, 38 seconds) and Westport (16:07) are right up there with Athens in slower response times, according to the statistics presented by the paramedic service.

The statistics indicate that the paramedic service shows its best times in the area with the most calls.

In April to June of this year, ambulances responded with fast service to the 1,199 calls they received in Brockville.

The municipalities of Athens, Westport and Merrickville-Wolford combined had only 124 calls during the same period, and the responses were slower.

The consultant’s report on the options for locating the Brockville station is due next month, so the committee decided to wait until then to debate response times further.

wlowrie@postmedia.com

Article content
Comments
You must be logged in to join the discussion or read more comments.
Join the Conversation

Postmedia is committed to maintaining a lively but civil forum for discussion. Please keep comments relevant and respectful. Comments may take up to an hour to appear on the site. You will receive an email if there is a reply to your comment, an update to a thread you follow or if a user you follow comments. Visit our Community Guidelines for more information.

Latest National Stories
    News Near Tillsonburg
      This Week in Flyers