Will send this out tomorrow. Minister of Health Dr. Eric Hoskins Ministry of Health and Long Term Care Dear Dr. Hoskins, I would like to draw your attention to the loss of the ambulance service within our area known as Argyle. We are located between highways 69 and 11, south of the French River in the northern part of the Parry Sound District. Our various small communities, Lost Channel, Loring, Port Loring, Arnstein, and Golden Valley are spread along a 100km stretch of the HWY 522. We are an unorganized township, a TWOMO. Our nearest hospital is in North Bay a minimum distance of 100km, or at least an hours driving time in good weather, from our central most populated point. We have approximately 1,000 full time residents, the majority of which are elderly, and our population swells enormously in the summer months, various hunting seasons and snowmobiling season. Prior to 1995 the community was operating a First Responders Unit to assist patients until an ambulance arrived. In 1995 the MOHLTC made the decision to replace our FRU with our own ambulance staffed by local volunteers based in Loring, it was known as the Argyle Volunteer Ambulance Service. This system has worked flawlessly, and has provided locals and tourists with land transportation to hospital in most cases in an hour or so. We also have back up from air ambulance and the local Volunteer Fire department. For many years our ambulance service has been operating under the license of Dr. Prcpic, Director of Emergency Services in Sudbury. Recent changes in legislation require new paramedics to be qualified to an EMCA standard. Of our six volunteer paramedics, two were qualified to a PCP standard and the other four had EMT certification. This meant that one of the PCP paramedics had to be on each call, while one of our other volunteers assisted and drove the ambulance. Due to the legislative changes, a few years ago Dr. Prcpic notified the community that our volunteer ambulance could not continue without the inclusion of EMCA certified paramedics. The Municipality of Parry Sound is our Designated Delivery Agent (DDA) for land ambulance. In 2009 they commissioned the first of two reports at a cost of $50,000. Our area has never had or been approached to have any representation on the Emergency Services Board. After the 2009 report was published, no changes were made to the volunteer system at Aygyle. In 2012, yet another $50,000 IBI report was commissioned by the DDA to address the situation at Argyle. After this report the DDA requested volunteers from the community to assist on the existing service. Acceptable volunteers were required to have EMCA certification and then they could volunteer their time in order to keep the ambulance running. It was at about this time that a community meeting was held to discuss the plight of the ambulance. It was attended by Parry Sound Mayor Jamie McGarvey who also sits on the Emergency Services Board and MPP Norm Miller. It was suggested at the meeting that if the town were incorporated as a municipality we could then have a $1.2M ambulance station staffed by EMCA certified paramedics. The meeting then changed direction and became a debate about possible municipalization and where a new station should be built, based on the data provided in the $50,000 IBI report. We have serious concerns about both the 2009 and most recently the 2012 reports. There are serious anomalies in the reports. The most concerning, is the number of calls attributed to the Argyle Volunteer Ambulance. For example; if the Argyle Ambulance picked up a patient from our area and then, as is customary, transferred that patient to a Powassan ambulance in Trout Creek, which is located on Highway 11, to take the patient the rest of the distance to North Bay, a further 20 minutes north, that call is counted as a Powassan ambulance call. So the numbers for the Argyle Ambulance are considerably lower than reality. In 2014 Linda Legault, one of the two PCP volunteer paramedics announced her intention to retire. Linda served her community for over twenty years as a volunteer for which the community is very grateful. This meant the demise of the volunteer ambulance service. Not surprisingly qualified volunteers were not found, I suppose it is like being a house painter and being asked to paint the community centre on your days off, for free. The volunteer ambulance service was then slated to close on September 8th. Sadly in July, after twenty years dedicated service to her community and on the eve of her retirement, Linda Miller, our other PCP paramedic passed away in her home. This left only Linda Legault to carry on as the only PCP paramedic at Argyle. Linda had to be on call 24/7 until the September 8th deadline. The DDA, aware of the situation did not offer to cover Linda Millers shifts, they stood back and let Linda Legault take the full brunt of the responsibility. There were 22 calls in the month of August and a further 10 call in the first week of September. In July, the DDA decided that it would transfer the dayshift from South River, located an hours drive south east of Argyle into the Argyle area while a third, $60,000 third party report was commissioned. The night shift would have been retained at South River but Argyle would have been without service at night. South River is located 20 minutes south of the ambulance base in Powassan and 20 minutes north of the ambulance base in Burks Falls. By August a number of the Mayors from the District petitioned council through a special meeting of the DDA to rescind those plans, the motion was passed. It was reported by the local media that the Mayors complaint was that they felt that Argyle was a burden to their municipalities because Argyle did not contribute to the system because we are a TWOMO. So instead the DDA decided that as an interim measure, until the report is completed in early December, we are to rely on a fully EMCA certified paramedic in a PRU, unable to transport patients. If for example we have a resident in town who has a stroke, the PRU and paramedic will be dispatched, at the same time an ambulance from Powassan, 71km away will also be dispatched with two paramedics. Ten minutes after the call went out the PRU will be on scene with the patient. As you are aware, there is very little that can be done for a stroke patient outside of a hospital environment. A minimum of 60 minutes after the call was taken, the Powassan ambulance will arrive on scene. After ten minutes loading the patient, they would be in transit for the hour long trip to North Bay hospital. This is the very best possible scenario and does not account for calls that are down one of the many dirt roads where the majority of our residents live, it also does not account for the fact that we live in an area with one of the largest populations of white tail deer in North America. We also have moose and all of this wildlife tends to wander out on the highway particularly at night. We have sporadic snow plowing at best, and when the weather is bad during winter, we get phenomenal snow drifts and white outs. This is not to say that our own ambulance did not have to put up with these conditions, but to add a further trip for the ambulance to get in here simply adds to the time it will take to transport the patient. If the Powassan ambulance is busy, we would have to wait even longer for an ambulance to come from South River or even worse Burks Falls. There is also the cost factor, we now have one paramedic, a PRU vehicle, two further paramedics and an ambulance all involved in one call which is also a minimum hour longer than if the ambulance was based in town. Also while Powassans ambulance is doing an Argyle call they are away from Powassan for possibly four hours putting even more stress on the othe bases at South River and Burks Falls. One of the solutions that was mentioned in the 2012 IBI report was to keep the volunteer ambulance service in Argyle but supplement it with EMCA certified paramedics to work along side a less qualified volunteer while still meeting the licensing requirements of the Sudbury doctor. This would keep the ambulance in the community and would be a more cost effective option compared to a paramedic in a PRU. As the Ministry of Health and Long Term Care is a 100% stakeholder in the provision of land ambulance services to TWOMO and First Nations residents, I would ask that the Minister investigate the following issues: 1. That decisions are being made on faulty data provided by costly inaccurate third party reports, two since 2009 and a third recently ordered. 2. The geographic nature of our area precludes any other viable option but to have an ambulance base within the area. 3. Even as a temporary measure, the provision of a PRU vehicle as opposed to an ambulance could result in death due to the added time it will take to transport the patient. 4. The District of Parry Sound Sound is currently holding a cash reserve of almost $2M so money is obviously not an issue. 5. Why have we not had representation on the Board or been asked to provide nominees. Yours sincerely, Christopher Ballard
Posted on: Wed, 17 Sep 2014 01:35:45 +0000
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