Ted Arnott: Ornge fails to provide basic air ambulance service

TORONTO

Ornge, Ontario’s scandal-plagued air ambulance service, is failing in its basic mission of providing air ambulance service to Ontarians, says Wellington-Halton Hills MPP Ted Arnott.

Arnott, in question period on June 12, asked Health Minister Deb Matthews about the state of air ambulance service dispatched from Ornge’s London base.

He said, “In an attempt to defend her lack of appropriate action and her failure to restore confidence in Ontario’s air ambulance service, the minister has recently taken to reciting a litany of statistics related to Ornge. The minister has recounted the number of patients Ornge transfers, the number of vehicles Ornge owns and the number of staff it’s recently hired.”

He added, “Since the Minister is seemingly up to date on her numbers I would like to ask her this: Can she inform the house the total number of minutes Ornge helicopters at the London base have been unavailable to respond to emergencies so far this calendar year?”

When the minister refused to address that specific question, Arnott informed the legislature that information leaked to the PC caucus revealed that from Jan. 1 to June 1 this year helicopters at the Ornge base in London have been unable to respond to emergencies for a total of 10,224 minutes.

“That’s 170 hours, or the equivalent of a full week of down time - and we’re not even half way through the year,” Arnott said. “Will she now admit that the air ambulance service that people in Southwestern Ontario rely upon, in a life or death crisis, often cannot even be deployed?

The Ornge base in London is responsible for responding to emergencies throughout southwestern Ontario, including in Wellington County, Halton Region, and Waterloo Region.

“It appears that Ontarians can’t always depend on Ornge to provide air ambulance service when it’s needed,” he said Arnott. “The minister must take immediate action to fix the problem.”  The PC caucus has been raising concerns about Ornge in the Ontario legislature for over a year.

June 22, 2012