EMS Services Provide Ambulance To confederation College
By Scott A. Sumner
Thunder Bay Business
Superior North Emergency Medical Services is the agency that provides 911 paramedic ambulance response service to all citizens in the district of Thunder Bay. They have a staff of 175 of which 160 are paramedics. There is also associated support staff in the city of
Thunder Bay that help in the areas of financial, human resources etc. It’s a big operation with a big responsibility and one we may all need to use one day. In the Thunder Bay district EMS they have 55 ambulances plus 10 support vehicles. There are three facilties in the city of Thunder Bay on Beck, Roland and Selkirk Streets.
“ The Roland site has a low call volume and the North side is not well suited. We have determined our response times in the North side are almost two minutes higher than the south side. We deal with 90th percentages which mean our average call time is 11 min 14 seconds. It is slight higher than provincially where it is 10 to 11 minutes but there are many factors involved say in the city of Toronto with a high population concentration and less rural concentration. Generally speaking we are above the provincial average,” said Norm
Gale Director of EMS. EMS has been in the news recently as the group hope to soon start building a new station on Junot Street to replace the Beck and Roland Street sites.
At Confederation College the paramedic program is the major source of employees for EMS. Over half of their staff come from this program. In the future they will be the biggest supplier of staff according to Gale. Given this fact it was an easy decision for Gale
to donate one of their ambulances to Confederation College. “ It is important our staff be currently trained and understand the equipment they need to use. This is an ideal time to donate the ambulance. We support the program fully and rely on it heavily for staff. I was a
paramedic for 18 years, am a graduate of the program and used to teach in the program. Paramedics are providing life and death support and care in emergencies. Our paramedics respond to tragic circumstances and that is what they have to be prepared to do,” said
Gale. “ Thunder Bay Fire Service has a response time of about 6 minutes and they can respond with a defribulator. EMS responds to a significantly higher volume of calls than fire does which has 8 stations in the city with more staff than ems. We respond to 17,000
calls a year. The new facility will be productive. We are confident it will reduce response times in the city of Thunder Bay overall and specifically in the north side.”
Don Benedict is coordinator of the paramedic program at Confederation College. It is a 2 year full time program where the paramedics learn theory and practical skills in the class and the field. Some have university degrees and high academic credentials before coming into the program. There will be a 30 intake in the first year and 27 in the second as well as 12 in Fort Frances and 12 In Dryden. There are about 9 or 10 other programs in Ontario according to Don Benedict.
“ They are taught protocols and we add defibrillators and basic drugs they may be able to give. Thunder Bay just donated three new defibrillators similar to what they use in the field. We are looking at the students critical decision making. We throw all kinds of scenarios at them fast with time limited and they must make good fast decisions which follow a protocolist in a set time,” said Benedict. “ It really helps the paramedics in driving the ambulance and they
work up as they are employed.”
A new ambulance unit is $125,000. That one donated was in service for about 10 years.
Pictures of students
Chris Koropeski high school
John Schelhaas engineer
Bruce Cashaback Cascades
