The Town of Erin will continue to receive patrolling ambulances, county council heard on Jan. 26.
A social services committee report stated the land ambulance service is going to see some changes in order to improve services, but there is no set time for that to happen.
Committee chairman Gord Tosh said having an ambulance patrol into Erin several times a day did not lead to significant reductions in waiting times, and Guelph does not believe stationing an ambulance in the community is a cost effective way to operate the service.
Tosh said the report showed the volume of calls for ambulances has increased, and adding an ambulance station in Erin would simply see it deployed in other places.
The report was completed after Guelph, which runs land ambulance for the city and county, enhanced the service. The report was to indicate the effect of those enhancements after 120 days of service.
Guelph Wellington EMS employes 139 paramedics, including supervisors and managers. Forty-seven of those paramedics are certified at the advanced care paramedic level. The service staffs eight ambulances and has one rapid response unit 24 hours a day, plus four ambulances are deployed during peak hours.
The service covers 230,000 residents over 1,500 square kilometres.
Stephen Dewar, the acting chief of Guelph Wellington Emergency Medical Services, said in his report the Ministry of Health that 14 minutes and 55 seconds is the goal for response times for 90 per cent of all ambulance calls (the other 10 per cent of calls could be anomalies and thus are eliminated from the average).
The ambulance currently operates out of eight stations. That includes two in Guelph, and one each in Harriston, Mount Forest, Arthur, Drayton, Fergus and Rockwood. Those stations were set up based on calls for service volumes.
Not all of those stations are staffed 24 hours a day. Dewar noted there are generally very few calls between 3 and 6am compared to those in daylight hours.
He said in his report part of the problem for allocation of services is the Ministry of Health has most of the statistical information and, “there is a significant problem with the accuracy of the data.”
He said in an interview the province is aware of that problem and ministry officials are working on correcting that.
Dewar said in the report the ministry is changing its response times standards, and ambulances will soon be required to services sudden cardiac arrest patients or other critical care patients within eight minutes of the time the notice is received.
That new standard is coming in October, and EMS staff are working to determine how to address that requirement.
Dewar also stated in the report how busy the service is. In 2010, it had 15,779 patient related calls, with 10,224 classified as life threatening. Using the 90th percentile, the response time was 12 minutes and eight seconds or less.
Dewar said the report indicates the extra measures added by Guelph “appear to have slowed the rate of increase in response times related to increased call volume, and extra staff have reduced the pressures on a busy service during high demand periods.”
He did note the current deployment strategy of having an ambulance in Fergus visit the Erin area had not had a positive effect on response times in that area and such a strategy is “not sustainable in the long term because of health and safety concerns, weather conditions and it is not consistent with overall goals for reducing carbon emissions and conserving fuel.”
Dewar said the intent is to keep servicing Erin as is being done now, at least until the new plan is in place. He added it could be some time before all the data arrives and decisions are made.
“We’re meeting regularly,” he said, noting the ideal would be to “establish a station that would be more appropriate.”
He said running the ambulance to Erin from Fergus has had some positive effects. That occurs when there are no other calls for that ambulance and could be several times a day.
He said Erin Mayor Lou Maieron has told him people are stating they see the ambulance in the area and tell him they are pleased about that.
As for getting more accurate ministry data, Dewar said he is “not sure” when that will occur but the ministry is working on the problem.
As for the constant calls for better service in Erin and Hillsburgh over the past few years, Dewar said, “I think we’re on the same page. We want to make sure the responses are better … Erin and Hillsburgh are definitely areas we’re are looking at.”
