ORNGE’s chief operating officer says an investigation into the organization by a national media outlet actually shows a good news story.
The Toronto Star reported Tuesday that ORNGE’s air ambulance in Thunder Bay was idled hundreds of times because no paramedics were available. But COO Tom Lepine said not having enough paramedics for calls is an issue for land and air ambulance across the province.
“We have more requests for service than we can deal with on an annual basis,” he said.
The company, which receives $150 million from the province, has had to look for efficiencies. Those were found by purchasing an additional airplane that can be used for patient transfers more cheaply and more effectively than by helicopter.
Since the switch, ORNGE has been able to move 700 more patients Lepine said.
“I look at that as actually good news for the North,” he said. “Many of those (calls) are airport to airport calls. We can do it much more efficiently, much more quickly and in a greater variety of weather conditions using a fixed wing so in reality it’s a good news story. The rotor wing is still there for those case that we need it.”
But the Star story reports that not having paramedics to staff the helicopter for emergency calls puts people in the North at risk.
Lepine said the only way to remedy that is for the province to give more money for more employees than the 22 full-time paramedics already based in Thunder Bay.
“With the restraints on health care within the provincial budget I don’t see that happening, it’s definitely not happening this year in fact we got less money than we requested this year,” Lepine said.
Superior North EMS chief Norm Gale agrees that the issue is province-wide. There were more than 1,000 calls, with more than 500 of those 911 calls, where an ambulance wasn’t available in the city last year. More money is needed to respond to growing demand he said.
“The alternative is to accept eroding response times and eroding service for EMS and it’s frankly an untenable situation right now,” Gale said.
ORNGE and Superior North EMS work in tandem on calls in the region. When a call goes out for an air ambulance, land paramedics also respond Gale said.
“They may not be able to respond because there’s no aircraft available in any event there is an EMS response,” he said.
