Firefighters trained 3 days after N.S. woman died in nearby home
Emergency Health Services says it's working to address service gaps, adding 20 new paramedics
A Nova Scotia fire department was given the proper protective equipment to safely respond to medical calls during the pandemic mere days after a woman died in her home near the station, Emergency Health Services said Thursday.
April George died after collapsing Feb. 8 at her home in Bass River. It took 80 minutes for an ambulance to arrive after her husband, Kevin, called 911. No one from the fire hall was alerted to the emergency.
At the start of COVID-19 lockdowns last spring, Emergency Health Services — a branch of the provincial government that provides emergency medical services — told its medical first-responder teams across Nova Scotia to no longer attend most medical calls for safety reasons. That included firefighters.
In a briefing Thursday, Charbel Daniel outlined a three-phase plan by Emergency Health Services (EHS) to train firefighters with personal protective equipment so they can resume medical calls.
The first phase, which began last September and wrapped up in December, involved the 35 agencies that respond to the highest volume of calls relating to cardiac arrests.
Daniel said the second phase started recently, and involves agencies and fire services located the farthest away from ambulance stations, including Bass River. He noted the training schedule had been planned out in December.
The Bass River training session took place on Feb.11. Daniel said firefighters at that station can start responding to medical calls as of Friday evening.
Daniel said the service plan for the surrounding area shows there are ambulance stations in Truro, Oxford and Parrsboro. This puts Bass River almost exactly in the middle of those three communities.
EHS expects to have all 58 agencies in the second phase trained by mid-April. The rest of the 126 medical response groups should be trained by the end of October, Daniel said.
The head of the Fire Service Association of Nova Scotia, Daniel Gaudet, has said while firefighters play an important role in emergencies across rural parts of the province, the root of the problem lies with EHS.
Gaudet said understaffed and overworked paramedics are struggling to respond to calls, leaving big holes in coverage and meaning people might wait hours for an ambulance.
Phil Stewart, a senior manager at EHS, said Thursday many factors that play into ambulance wait times and availability are out of their control, like temporary hospital closures.
"We acknowledge that under certain circumstances such as severe weather, and system volumes in particular areas, it may take longer for crews to respond," Stewart said.
He added EHS continues to work on offloading patients at the hospital more quickly, which has long been an issue paramedics have called attention to in their "code critical" campaign.
But Stewart said the pandemic has also played a role, adding that restrictions around recruitment, travel and gathering have affected the service's ability to bring in new paramedics to the system.
Stewart said they expect to bring 20 new paramedics on board soon, and more can be done once travel restrictions are lifted.
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