The Rainy River District Social Services Administration Board (DSSAB) is facing many challenges to maintain ambulance services in the district.
The DSSAB operates four bases across the district, all staffed 24/7 but with only one ambulance at each station.
Compared to other parts of the province, call volumes are low.
Chief Administrative Officer Dan McCormick says he can guarantee there will be a call within the hour, but the difficulty is knowing where those calls originate.
He says that led them to staggering ambulances when required.
“Right now, Fort Frances is a hub for all treatment. So if you have a patient out in Rainy River and they have to come in, they generally come in. We stagger vehicles. So Emo will move to Rainy River. The second ambulance in Fort will move to Emo. It’s just a leapfrog to maintain coverage. So in the north, we cover to geographic area, not to population or call volume,” says McCormick.
He notes adding another ambulance to each base would cost between $1.2 and $1.5 million per vehicle.
A second ambulance was put in place in Fort Frances and operate during the daytime hours, Monday to Friday, as a gap filler.
McCormick says another factor facing the ambulance service is that paramedics do not always live in the community they serve.
“That’s really hard for an ambulance system because when you’re looking for somebody on short notice, because all of a sudden you need two ambulances, and the next closest one is an hour and a half away, you’ve got a problem.”
McCormick says the ambulance service does have supervisors’ vehicles that are fully stocked with life-saving equipment on board, for emergency purposes if necessary.
They cannot transport a patient, but McCormick says it does ensure a quick response when no ambulance is immediately available.
Staffing continues to be an issue.
Paramedics have become in short supply across Ontario.
McCormick says the local service could use another five to get back to a reasonable compliment.
He is hoping the new Learn and Stay program will help.
“That was through successful lobbying of our board. We went to a minister and said, this cannot go on. And they agreed. They created a Learn and Stay strictly for the north. They will pay all tuition costs for the current two years of schooling as long as they commit to a further two years of working in the north.”
The province recently announced increasing the number of spaces in college paramedic programs this fall, including at Confederation College.
