A recent decision by the province to move local ambulance dispatching to Hamilton from Cambridge could be reversed.
That service is responsible for dispatching ambulances to Guelph and Wellington County.
The Region of Waterloo is asking the province to allow it to assume control of the land ambulance dispatch for the area.
Recently, the province moved the Cambridge Central Ambulance Communications Centre (ACC) — which dispatches ambulances in Waterloo Region — Guelph and Wellington County, to Hamilton due to staffing issues.
On Tuesday, the Regional Council of Waterloo’s Community Services Committee decided to formally request assuming control of the ambulance dispatch for the region from the province. The region is also seeking 100 per cent provincial funding for the ambulance dispatch operations.
In a report to council, regional staff said the moving of ambulance dispatch to Hamilton comes with potential risks, including the loss of 9-1-1 ANI/ALI auto-location services which allows dispatchers to determine the origin of a call if a person is non-verbal or the call is cut off prematurely.
The report notes ANI/ALI service only works from calls made by land line, which accounts for approximately 25 per cent of all calls received.
On Tuesday, council was informed by Stephen Van Valkenburg, emergency medical services chief for the region, that the ANI-ALI service has been reestablished to the region in the Hamilton ACC.
The report also said there is concern staff at the Hamilton ACC may not be trained in deployment and geography for ambulances in Waterloo Region, Guelph, Wellington County and Dufferin County.
In a recent GuelphToday story, a spokesperson for the union representing ambulance dispatchers at Cambridge Central Ambulance Communications Centre said it shares those concerns.
In the same article, the chief of Guelph-Wellington Paramedic Service said there has so far been no ill effects from the move of ambulance dispatching from Cambridge to Hamilton.
Having the dispatch service operating under the municipality would also allow the paramedic services in the region to glean more information about real-time data related to off-load delays and increased call demands. Currently there is no accountability framework in place for Cambridge ACC to report back or provide information to paramedic services on system performance.
Van Valkenburg said 74 per cent of the calls dispatched from the Cambridge ACC in 2017 were assigned as life-threatening or lights and sirens calls. Only 11 per cent of those calls ended up as high priority calls where a patient was transported to the hospital.
Asked how long it would take for the ambulance dispatch to be transferred to the region, Van Valkenburg estimated one to two years after receiving the go-ahead from the province.
Councillor Jim Erb said he hopes council is able to seize the opportunity to bring the service to the municipality.
“This provincial government has proven itself to make some decisions other provincial governments weren’t prepared to make,” said Erb. "I hope we can work with them and make it happen."
The Cambridge ACC had been experiencing a staff shortage for a number of months prior to the province’s decision to move the dispatching service to Hamilton.
The recommendation will be forwarded to Premier Doug Ford, the provincial minister of Health and Long Term Care and the local MPPs to reiterate the region's request to assume operational control of the local ambulance dispatch operations.
The Region of Waterloo first advocated for operational control of ambulance dispatch in 2007. Since then, the region has made a number of similar requests to the province.
Currently, land ambulance dispatch centres in Toronto, Ottawa, Timmins and the Region of Niagara are operated by their respective municipalities. In the rest of Ontario, including Waterloo Region, Guelph and Wellington County, land ambulance dispatch centres are operated by the province.
