Letter to the Editor by Bill Fry – An Election issue of life and Death for residents SD&G and Cornwall Ontario – Ambulance Service – October 10, 2010

What if you called an ambulance because you’ve just suffered a heart attack or your loved one is bleeding to death because of an accident and the response was there’s not one available but one is on its way from Ottawa?

Well this is a reality and everyone in the three United Counties of SD&G and the city of Cornwall needs to make this an election issue by demanding from any politician asking for their vote in any municipality  that they promise that if elected that they will seek a committee at the Three United Counties level to fully investigate the ambulance service provided to over 110,000 citizens in 3000 square miles that the SD&G is responsible for.

A year ago in September I became concerned about the building of a Central Ambulance Station that would’ve increased the distance to emergencies to many areas west of Cornwall.

At the time I wrote several letters to the editor and spoke to several local township council members. One of those members Tammy Hart became very concerned but told me that as a counsellor she had very little input on the issue but she would bring it up to Council so that council’s representatives at the counties level would be informed and it would be up to them to follow up.

Fortunately South Stormont’s council members were concerned   and requested a   meeting between Cornwall emergency services who oversees Ambulance service for SD&G and the Manager of Emergency Services for Cornwall Myles Cassidy gave his presentation to S. Stormont’s Counsel on April, 22, 2010 I was invited to be there and given permission to ask questions.

The Chief was very open  and it soon became  apparent to me  that the location of this new  station was minor to what the chief revealed to us,  in fact I never even raised the concern  because  of the much larger threat to  life and limb  that became apparent.

In short it was revealed that  many times  there is only one ambulance available for 110,000 people covering 3000 square miles., and at times there are none. This of course is unacceptable and can only be changed by forming a committee to fully investigate the ambulance services throughout SD &G and city of Cornwall. But this committee will probably not be formed unless you elect representatives to your township or city that pledge to fully investigate and ensure that every citizen has the ambulance protection that we pay for and deserve.

You may be surprised to find out that the reason we do not have a  ambulance available  many times  is because a City of Ottawa who appears to also suffer from a shortage of   ambulances  under mutual aid laws mandated by the province are using ambulances from the Municipalities  that are transferring patients to the  specialized hospitals in Ottawa and  minute the ambulance radios dispatch to say they are free to take calls and returning to their home base they  are grabbed  to do  Ottawa calls  not always life threatening .

Also because emergency departments are short staffed because of poor funding ambulance paramedics are forced to wait six hours or more to transfer a patient to an emergency nurse.

I also firmly believe  that the City of Ottawa  has a  Serious Ambulance Shortage and under  existing  provincial rules  and  the amount of ambulances  from all the surrounding communities  that take patients there on a daily basis it  allows them to not have to address this issue  saving their tax payers millions of dollars  while putting  our communities at risk as we subsidize  the much more affluent community of Ottawa.

Also complicating this now is a new directive demanding at all ambulances report to Cornwall home base to change shift and  added to this  that the  positioning of ambulances be done  according to historical data means that villages like Morrisburg and Alexandria often are not covered for many hours.

The extra wear and tear on the vehicles and increased fuel consumption also means significant costs to the taxpayer.

The city of Cornwall has looked after itself  it has two quick response units  cars  to   send  with paramedics  to stabilize patients until a ambulance arrives to transport to the hospital but there maybe one day  a needless death  will occur due to lack of timely transport to a full medical unit.

Also Cornwall has full time firefighters that also can be  task to respond to  assist were in the counties they have a volunteer  units

In conclusion this needs to be a very serious election issue!

Now is the time as a citizen to raise your concerns at all candidate debates at the door and in the newspapers that if elected your representatives will not stop till this serious risk to everyone’s health is corrected.

The time is now not at an inquest into your death. I am only one voice I need to be more.

In all fairness to Bryan McGillis Warden of SD&G counties   he  has been working to see what  could be done to correct this  but I believe he  needs  the full support of all politicians from the counties to  correct this problem  and  we need to see  positive results very soon .

Bill Fry Former manager Electrodiagnostic Dept HDH Cornwall

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