Having an ambulance in Erin remains a priority for Mayor Lou Maieron.
On Nov. 15, Maieron said he is continuing to work with the Wellington County social services committee that receives ambulance reports from Guelph.
“I told them that the mayor and the residents were very appreciative of seeing an ambulance in Erin.”
He said it is seen near Tim Hortons in Erin and near McKinnon’s Lumber, in Hillsburgh.
Maieron said that move is part of a four month study, and the city added an ambulance into service for Wellington County as part of that.
The ambulance was stationed in Centre Wellington for 12 hours per day and Erin for the other 12 hours a day when possible. The four month trial is to determine if it will improve response times, he said.
Prior to then, many of the response calls were by ambulances from by Dufferin, Peel and Halton regions. As a result, response times were below provincial standards, he said.
Maieron was still disappointed the service did not take advantage of the ambulance bay in Erin’s medical centre.
“The concern expressed somewhat politely was that if the ambulance bay was located in the medical centre, it could be used to pick up people in Erin, but since we don’t have a hospital nearby, [the ambulance] would likely take the person to Orangeville or Georgetown first; Guelph, third and Fergus fourth, based on distance travelled,” he said.
Maieron suggested if ambulances are travelling outside the county, it may be some time before they return. He said there is not the same concern in the north with Louise Marshall Hospital in Mount Forest and the Palmerston hospital, which have ambulances stationed there.
Maieron said they have no problem sending the ambulance outside of the county to pick up patients, “because the ambulance is always coming back.”
He suggested Erin might consider a reciprocal agreements with one of the hospital and maybe give it a little bit of money for the service.
“We’ll see how that flies,” he quipped.
