When trouble rears its head a call to 9-1-1 should result in prompt service. This is 2009 after all.
But minutes can quickly turn into what seems like hours for the victim, and those waiting for help to arrive also suffer distress, unsure what to do to save a friend or loved one.
Fire departments, police officers and ambulance attendants work very well together. Each has a chore to do and, typically, tragedy is averted by those heroes, highly skilled and dedicated to their craft. Frankly, they are lifelines for many of us who are helpless when it comes to emergency situations.
Dollars and cents enter into the equation for such services far too often for our liking. The continuing saga of poor response times plaguing the Town of Erin remains unresolved. County councillor Lou Maieron and Mayor Rod Finnie and his council and staff continue working on the issue with little effect. It is time to regroup and develop a different strategy. Perhaps part of the answer to poor ambulance response times lies next door in Guelph-Eramosa Township.
In 2003, an ambulance bay was installed and equipped for use within the fire-hall built at that time by the township. As a result of petty politics that project was held in abeyance until current Mayor Chris White pushed the fact that the project was promised and owed to the residents of Guelph-Eramosa. Other communities, such as Arthur and Mapleton have developed similar strategies to varying degrees that made it easier for ambulances to be at the ready.
There is a belief in some circles that the Rockwood station represented a stop gap measure for service complaints, and that it negatively affected Erin’s bid for a local ambulance depot. We sense a bit of intellectual tomfoolery there from two factions. The City of Guelph, as service provider, is suggesting Rockwood improves time enough to be acceptable for Erin, while the Erin proponents suggest Rockwood is a stumbling block to having its own ambulance facility. There is no need for an either-or proposition, nor a compromise.
Erin residents need and deserve access to timely service, too. Period.
At the moment Erin remains in the process of planning a new fire hall. Surely down the road, an ambulance bay can form part of that facility, where attendants can get in out of the cold, wash down their rig, do paperwork, and be on the ready when tragedy strikes. The development of facilities to promote cohesive emergency services is bang on, and is a worthwhile investment for any community. The need for emergency services will only increase as populations grow and the demographic naturally ages. We are confident that in the interim a location can be chosen that will provide a home base for an ambulance on a more regular basis.
The seamless service envisioned by the province when land ambulance services were downloaded, is imperfect. A majority of calls are handled in Erin by neighbouring ambulance services. While it is great to have access to those services, surely some thought must be given to the fairness of property owners paying for service elsewhere.
We have always believed in true cost accounting and those costs being borne by people receiving the service. In this case, there is a measure of dishonesty, relying on neighbouring regions to prop up and pay for services used within Guelph and Wellington, just as it is dishonest for Guelph and Wellington ambulances to roll into neighbouring counties without a reciprocal payment agreement. In the longer term, that issue must be addressed.
Regrettably, politics are being played out at the expense of residents who deserve better service. It’s as simple as that.
