Mayor Ray Tout told representatives of the Guelph-Wellington Emergency Medical Service (EMS) he was not happy with response times and placement of ambulances in the township.
“I’d like to see us get a little more coverage,” Tout told Guelph fire chief and EMS manager Shawn Armstrong and EMS chief Stephen Dewar after they provided council with a report on June 9.
The EMS officials are making the rounds of county municipalities to update them on how the service is functioning (they made a similar presentation to Guelph-Eramosa council on June 2).
Armstrong said the presentation was part of a plan to report twice a year to municipalities who help fund the service through $3.2 million in county funding.
The service is required to respond to serious calls such as cardiac arrest within eight minutes, 65 per cent of the time. However, figures show ambulances meet the eight minute benchmark just 48% of the time in the county, compared to 76% in Guelph.
“We thought we could do better than 65%,” Armstrong said, noting the figure is based on ambulances and personnel on duty.
An ambulance is required at calls in Guelph about every 47 minutes, while county calls of a serious nature are one every 12 hours.
The service currently has 12 ambulances in service during peak times, Dewar said. The ambulances are cut back to about four in the city and four in the county at night when calls dwindle.
The ambulances are dispatched through a centre in Cambridge operated by the province.
Armstrong acknowledged the system will dispatch the ambulance closest to the scene, and can also dispatch an ambulance from outside of the county depending on ambulances available in Wellington and neighbouring counties.
Armstrong said ambulances can also be tied up at hospitals in the county or outside its borders during the time it takes to admit a patient.
Tout asked whether the service could provide details about how often an ambulance is dispatched outside of the township and how often ambulances normally located in Mount Forest and Arthur are dispatched south. Dewar said he did not have the information available, but would provide it to the mayor at a later date.
Dewar said the service usually moves ambulances around to minimize service disruption. He said ambulances in Mount Forest and Arthur can be dispatched to Centre Wellington and Minto depending on emergency calls.
The service operates on a tiered basis with local fire departments assisting on calls when needed or when an ambulance is late getting to a location.
Tout was also concerned about ambulance repairs taking place outside of the county. The mayor said it “doesn’t make sense” to have ambulances serviced in Kitchener when the work could be done at shops in the county.
“It doesn’t make sense for what it is costing us,” he said.
Councillor Sherry Burke asked the officials if they have a way of tracking where defibrillators are located to help anyone assisting a patient suffering a heart attack.
She was told the service is working on having all information on the location of defibrillators relayed to callers.
The service is also available to assist municipalities in preparing applications for government grants to purchase defibrillators. Last year the service assisted in 19 defibrillator applications.
Tout said the service can be improved in the rural parts of Wellington.
