Amalgamated Muskoka hospitals worry Parry Sound, Almaguin ambulance service
News – North Bay Nipissing News – by Rebecca Zanussi
ALMAGUIN/PARRY SOUND – An analysis of district-wide ambulance services revealed a threatening reality should Muskoka hospitals amalgamate to one location.
“We all know what’s going on in Muskoka, right?” said Town of Parry Sound Director of Emergency and Protective Services Dave Thompson, during a District of Parry Sound Municipal Association spring meeting on April 29.
“They’re talking about amalgamating two hospitals into one hospital. That’s going to have a huge impact to us if it happens.”
“The tricky thing about EMS, no matter what, the closest ambulance goes,” Thompson said earlier in the meeting, during a strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) analysis he was conducting with East and West Parry Sound municipalities.
“Once we get into North Bay, it’s like this massive vortex and we can’t get our ambulances out of North Bay. Because they’re trying to get out, and they get tagged with a call. They’re trying to get back to Powassan or South River and they get (dispatched to) a call. And that can go on for two or three calls in a row. It’s quite an issue. And not an easy one to address because Ministry of Health is very set on their rules in terms of closest ambulance.”
If the Huntsville and Bracebridge hospitals go to one location — as Muskoka Algonquin Healthcare voted to work towards last year — Thompson says it would create another “massive vortex” down south.
“If they amalgamate those two hospitals down there, we’re going to be in the same thing in Muskoka we’re in in North Bay, when I was talking about getting tagged with calls,” he told Parry Sound District municipal leaders.
“It’s a big deal.”
Thompson and the EMS department in the Town of Parry Sound — which is the land ambulance delivery agent for the entire district — are preparing to redo the five-year business and financial plans. The SWOT analysis, held at the Municipal Association meeting April 29 in Kearney, helped set the stage.
“I know I’ve talked to my peers about investigations that appear elsewhere in the province. We have extremely few of those,” Thompson said of medics in the Parry Sound District.
“I feel lucky that I don’t have investigations come across my desk by the Ministry of Health on a regular basis and by that I mean I think that happens once a year, so that’s a real strength and it’s the paramedics on the ground who do that.”
Weaknesses included communication, privacy policy, difficulty of access in terms of geography, seasonal peaks, funding models, Ornge air ambulance service night landing procedure, working cross-border (as with the “massive vortex”), and non-urgent transports.
“Our call volume increase is almost 30 per cent in the summertime, July and August, specifically, but that also spreads into June and September a little bit, and hunting season as well,” Thompson said of seasonal peaks.
“But it’s extremely difficult to manage with our resources we have.”
Opportunities identified were community paramedicine, proactive response, public education on health issues, investigating chronic health issues affecting a large number of the population, providing school bus drivers with CPR/first aid training, and co-operation with nursing stations.
Threats included aging population, sustainable funding, overregulation, post-traumatic stress disorder, shortage of doctors, hospital location, organizing unincorporated townships, and information technology infrastructure.
Thompson planned to take the analysis back with him, summarize the details, and provide copies to municipalities.
“If your municipality wants to prioritize or indicate what’s really important to you, send it back to me,” he said.
“The EMS Committee looking at these issues to define where we’re going in the next five years as a business perspective, but also a financial one as well.”