City receives ambulance certification; takes over service Jan. 1

The city has  received ambulance service cer­ti­fication after Emergency Services staff successfully com­pleted the interview panel component of the ambulance service certification process recently.

That means that on Jan. 1, Royal City Ambulance service will be replaced by a service run by Guelph.

The approval came from a panel led by the Ministry of Health’s Emergency Health Ser­vices Branch, which asses­sed the city’s understanding of and preparations for dealing with day-to-day operational is­sues and challenges of opera­t­ing a land ambulance ser­vice.

Guelph and Wellington Coun­ty will share the ambu­lance service.

Deputy Fire Chief of Ad­mini­stration Lyle Quan said in an interview, “We’ve been working diligently over the past few months” to prepare for the ministry testing.

Royal City Ambulance is owned and operated by Harry Hitchon. Quan said he ap­proached the ambulance ser­vice committee and explain­ed he hoped to retire when the current contract runs out on Dec. 31.

Meanwhile, Quan said, a consultants report had sug­gested that the city run its own ambulance service, so the timing was excellent.

The ministry was impressed with the quality of the certi­fi­cation package the city sub­mitted, which outlined the op­erational policies and pro­cedures for the ambulance ser­vice.

City staff was also com­mended for its knowledge and expertise in handling the vari­ous scenarios they were given.

Quan repre­sented the city along with Sandy Smith and Leanne Swantko, both of Royal City Ambulance, who will join Guelph Wellington Emergency Medical Services when the city becomes the official ambulance service provider.

Quan said the certification process included an all day re­view, with the afternoon taken up with the ministry officials presenting different scenarios for the team to explain how they would handle them. He said there were three options for the testers: failure, a pass with some stipulations, and a full pass.

The group earned a full pass on its first attempt.

“We were extremely pleas­ed,” Quan said. “It was a big hurdle for us. Now, we move to the next stage.

That means getting ready for a switch from one service to another on New Year’s Day.

Quan said all the ambulance personnel and most of the Royal City Ambulance person­nel will be retained by the city. He added some clerical staff are not needed, but ambulance attendants retain their jobs.

“It was already assumed in our resolution,” he said of re­taining the ambulance com­pany’s personnel. There are 137 people involved, from sup­ervisors to management staff, to paramedics.

Royal City Ambulance Ser­vice Ltd. (RCA) was estab­lished within Guelph in the 1950s, and expanded providing service to Fergus in 1978. It was contracted as the sole land ambulance service provider to Guelph and Wellington in 2001.

According to its website, Royal City has:

– 32 full-time primary care paramedics;

– 35 part-time primary care paramedics; and

– 27 full-time advanced care paramedics; and

– 19 part-time advanced care paramedics.

Quan noted that those per­sonnel are undergoing their an­nual certification testing, and as they received that, they met with Guelph’s human re­sources personnel and Quan to be given information about the change­over.

Guelph council voted in favour of the city offering direct delivery of the ambu­lance service in June.

Several years ago, the city and county, which share the ambulance service, agreed that the city would take the lead in that service. There were some difficulties, and the county at one point attempted to take back its authority over the service.

However, that was rejected by the province, and the two have been working since then to improve service in areas such as Erin, which had the longest waiting times for an ambulance.

Quan said that is no longer an issue, and it was a joint county and city land ambulance committee that unanimously voted to have Guelph take over the service when the members learned of Hitchon’s decision and the consultants’ recom­men­dation.

County council a few years ago had also become concerned when it helped to pay for para­medics to upgrade their skills. Many of them began leaving for higher paying jobs else­where after receiving their in­creased certification.

Quan said that is common that companies try to obtain the more highly skilled employees from other places, but added that it is no longer an issue with the service.

He said now, unless some­one retires or moves outside the country, there is no need to hire any more para­medics. The ones in place are staying there.