Four new paramedics will be added to the Guelph-Wellington Emergency Medical Service (EMS) in Erin, bringing around-the-clock ambulance service to the town.
Guelph council approved the move at a Dec. 7 budget meeting.
Colleen Clack, deputy CAO of public services for Guelph, which runs land ambulance service for the city and county, said the additional staff will improve response times in the Town of Erin.
The ambulance station, located in Hillsburgh, is currently staffed from 11am to 11pm.
“If somebody in Erin township calls 911, outside of the 12 hours, they are currently responded to usually from Orangeville (or) Peel,” Clack said.
“By adding four paramedics, it enables us to go to a 24-hour response in Erin township, which therefore should cut down the response times in those hours.”
The additional four paramedics will cost $586,333 annually.
The first year, Wellington County will pay 40 per cent of the cost and Guelph will cover the remainder. Beyond the first year, provincial funding will kick in, covering 50%, said Clack. Then the county will pay 20% and the city 30%.
Guelph-Wellington EMS measures response times by how often an ambulance gets to high priority calls, such as a heart attack, within eight minutes.
“Currently in Erin, we’re doing that just over 19% of the time,” said Clack. “If you compare that to Guelph, in Guelph we meet that response time 79% of the time, so it’s a huge difference.”
She added response times are naturally faster in cities, where distance is not an issue.
“In the county, our hope is to get closer to a 35% response percentage time by adding these extra paramedics,” she said.
Clack added Erin was chosen for the four new positions due to its population density, coupled with the slower response times.
“The reason why Erin was the focus … (is) it’s a larger village,” she said.
Interim CAO for Erin Derek McCaughan said he was “ecstatic” about the announcement.
“It shows that staff are listening to the concerns of this community,” he said.
Former Erin mayor Lou Maieron was a proponent of increased paramedic services during his time as a county councillor, then as Erin mayor.
He said, “24-hour service is wonderful and terrific News.”
McCaughan said council will likely hear the details of the positions in the new year.
“I would like to think it’s going to improve the response time, but I think when you’re looking at the paramedic service, everybody needs to understand it’s a county-wide service … so those resources get pulled in all kinds of different directions where the need exists,” he said.
McCaughan said an increase to paramedic staff could reduce the need for the Erin fire department at medical calls.
“But again, we need to have a bit more detail before we can assume that,” he added.
