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Regional update 2010 July

July 2010 – Councillor Sean Strickland Regional Affairs-E-News

AMBULANCE RESPONSE TIMES IMPROVING

Dear Neighbours,

For new readers, please see information at the end of the email.

I hope everyone’s summer is going well and you are taking an opportunity to relax and spend some time with family. Spring was so busy at our household that this “spring” update has overflowed into summer. Hope you don’t mind.

Increased summer activities unfortunately also bring increased accidents and trauma. In this issue I thought it would be useful to know what the Region of Waterloo is doing to improve ambulance response times.

Ambulance Response Times

As Chair of the Community Services Committee (which has responsibility for emergency medical services (EMS) or more commonly referred to as ambulance) I have been actively involved with Regional Staff to implement a plan that will improve ambulance response times across the Region. Recommendations to improve response times include using modern signal light technology so ambulances can receive priority at signalized intersections, investing in new ambulances and ambulance stations where required and the creation of a joint Dispatch Centre with police and fire.

The current dispatch model is cumbersome and outdated causing dispatchers to spend unnecessary seconds to transfer calls back and forth and identifying whether fire/police/ambulance or all 3 services are required. Current ambulance response times are delayed anywhere from 30 seconds to 1.30 seconds simply due to inefficient dispatch!

In January 2010 the Community Services Committee and Council unanimously adopted the following recommendations:

“1. Fire Services Dispatching should be consolidated into one Fire Communications Centre co-located with the Waterloo Regional Police Communications Centre.

2. Enhanced Technology, including AVL (Automatic Vehicle Location) for Fire Services, electronic linking of Fire and EMS CAD (Computer Aided Dispatch) systems, and pre-alert to ambulances.

3. CCACC (Cambridge Central Ambulance Communications Centre) should be co-located with Police and Fire Dispatch Services in the same facility.

and encourage the Group to move forward with required investigations so that a final decision to proceed can be made in June, 2010.

The three recommendations together, provide a longer-term staged approach to consolidating Police, Fire and EMS dispatching in a single facility. This staged approach is necessary as the Ministry of Health and Long Term Care’s (MOHLTC) co-operation is required for recommendations 2 and 3 to be implemented. While invited, the MOHLTC chose not to participate in the Dispatch Model Review process.”

In June of this year Regional Council learned that all area emergency service teams are still prepared to co-operate and move towards a single consolidated Dispatch Centre. Regrettably the province, for whatever reason, is not allowing us to proceed at this time. Myself and the other Committee Chairs of the Region have requested a meeting with provincial officials to remedy this situation as soon as possible.

In the interim, Regional Staff are reviewing technologies for signal optimization and traffic control pre-emption that will reduce the average ambulance response time by 45-60 seconds. Final selection and implementation of this technology will begin sometime in 2011.

As elected officials, Regional Council is doing what we can to ensure our ambulance system is fast, efficient and reliable. Ambulance is a service you never want to use but if you or a loved one needs an ambulance you want it there fast.

Have a safe summer.

Please see:

http://www.waterloochronicle.ca/news/article/202147

http://www.waterloochronicle.ca/news/article/198996

http://www.cambridgetimes.ca/news/local/article/81983--new-response-times-set-for-regional-ambulances

http://www.region.waterloo.on.ca/web/region.nsf/8ef02c0fded0c82a85256e590071a3cc/cc3cb3ff956bab0a852576ba004ef0c7!OpenDocument

Sincerely,

Sean Strickland

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Note to Readers—“Regional Affairs” is an informal email newsletter prepared on a regular basis by Sean Strickland, Regional Councillor – City of Waterloo. The purpose is to provide a quick overview of regional activities/decisions and events. Please redistribute, file and/or delete as you see fit. If you wish to be removed from the list please contact us and we will be pleased to comply with your request.

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