EMS needs $1M to change service delivery
Niagara’s paramedics cannot continue doing their job the way they’ve been doing it as they face huge increases in call volumes.
And Niagara Emergency Medical Services needs $1.16 million to implement changes necessary to help them cope with growing demands, which may include alternatives to rushing patients to hospital emergency departments.
“This is all about our need to do business differently,” Niagara EMS Chief Kevin Smith said at a regional public health committee meeting Tuesday,
“Quite frankly, doing the same with the same is not in the future for us to be successful.”
Smith said paramedics have seen a 45.6 per cent increase in calls since 2011, and that number is poised to increase substantially in the years to come.
“In the next eight or nine years now, we’re going to be well over 100,000 calls (a year) coming in,” Smith told councillors. “That is quite a bit of growth to experience within the service.”
He said the 15,438 hours that Niagara paramedics spent waiting to deliver patients to emergency departments last year “is another real pressing reason of why we need to think about how many patients we’re actually taking to the hospital.”
Although Niagara EMS has coped with increases in the past by asking regional council for additional resources, Smith said those resource increases have failed to keep pace with call volumes. And paramedics cannot keep asking for more, “because right now what we’re doing, we’re seeing that it’s not working.”
“We need to rethink how we’re delivering services.”
Although fast response times have previously been the priority for paramedics, Smith said only about 10 per cent of patients they treat require immediate care.
“It’s not sustainable … and it’s not the right thing to do for the patients.”
For most patients, Smith said, the right thing to do “is not to go screaming to every call and not to take every patient to the hospital to receive care.”
The officer said he struggles with post-traumatic stress disorder and suffers from nightmares and experiences flashbacks of the incident.
“With all the negatives that stem from this kind of injury, there are also many positives,” he wrote. “It has given me more patience and love and appreciation for my family and friends.
“It also made me look at the big picture of life. It has given me a first-hand look at mental health in a way that unless you go through it, it is very difficult to really understand.”
He said PTSD is not a sign of weakness, rather it is “another obstacle to overcome in the road back to a normal life.”
Culley, a 37-year-old married father of three, received the Medal of Bravery, which recognizes acts of bravery in hazardous circumstances.
“I have gone through a lot over the last couple years,” he said. “My family and friends are incredible.”
NRP Chief Bryan MacCulloch said the bravery displayed by both officers is a “true testament to the strength of their character and underscores the brave acts that sometimes go unnoticed each day and every day by the men and women who proudly wear the NRP uniform.”