County social services committee chairman Gord Tosh warned council on Jan. 26 that when people overstate the nature of an emergency it could lead to a delay in getting an ambulance.
Tosh was referring to a report on a 42-minute response time for an ambulance in the Erin area last May.
The report, by Stephen Dewar, acting chief of Guelph-Wellington Emergency Services, stated there are two areas of jurisdiction when dealing with ambulances. The city controls the land ambulance service for the city and county.
Dewar noted in his report, “The Ministry of Health maintains the functions of receiving 9-1-1 calls and dispatching ambulances to calls for assistance.”
The report stated, “On May 4, a Guelph Wellington EMS ambulance responded to a call for assistance in the Town of Erin. A complaint was subsequently filed” related to the time.
Dewar continued, “The report finds errors were committed by ambulance communications officers (ACOs), and that those errors contributed to the delay in the response to the call for assistance. ACOs are Ministry of Health employees working in the central ambulance communications centre.
“The report specifically found no concerns with the actions of the Guelph Wellington EMS, and specifically states that care provided to the patient involved was in accordance with the legislated standards.” The report then explained the delay.
“Based on the patient information obtained during one of these calls, the request was prioritized as a Code 4 (urgent or life threatening) call. Dufferin County Ambulance Service 2268 was assigned to this call. When further patient information became available, the response priority was downgraded to a Code 3 (prompt) call.”
The report added the Dufferin ambulance was cancelled from the Erin call “as per policy and the call was subsequently assigned to Guelph-Wellington Emergency Medical Services ambulance 2276.”
The report noted that ambulance arrived on the scene 42 minutes after the original call.
The report explained the caller told the dispatch centre the patient had a history of heart problems and had been feeling light headed, and was flushed in colour and had been having trouble speaking, but was now returning to normal.
The report went in depth on the responses at the dispatch centre, and there were errors there in communication and recording of the calls. It also noted Dufferin County does not service calls under Code 4 unless those calls have been waiting for 30 minutes.
The report concluded the dispatcher did not contact Erin and Emergency Fire Services, and a dispatcher did not immediately reassign the call to a Guelph Wellington emergency vehicle when reviewing duplicate call information.
The report concluded, “There was a preventable delay in the provision of ambulance services for this patient.”
It also noted there was a delay of 7:31 before the dispatcher reassigned the call to the local ambulance service.
Tosh said while there was an error with the dispatch, overstating a medical emergency can cause switches in service that could cause delays.
