Ambulance response under scrutiny

But there’s no delay, says EMS manager

By Bill Jackson – The Regional

August 27, 2008

According to several residents in Caledonia, ambulances will no longer respond to some homes unless they’re first granted clearance by police.

A homeowner living off the Sixth Line said that emergency services attending her home must wait for a “police escort” and that it often takes Six Nations Police up to an hour to get there anyway.

“What happens then?” she asked rhetorically. “I’m (maybe) dead.”

After a local resident reportedly called an ambulance last week and waited more than half-an-hour for help to arrive, Brian Hagan, a Caledonia resident and friend of the caller decided to go to the OPP detachment to get some answers.

He claims that Acting Inspector Mike Rigby told him a police escort is required for ambulances responding to some homes near the Douglas Creek native occupation.

Because the OPP can’t travel to residences off Sixth Line, Hagan wonders how would they ever get medical help in a reasonable time frame during an emergency.

Rigby was not available to speak to the press following a community rally last Friday outside the OPP detachment where one resident called on the OPP to issue a statement refuting the charges if they were untrue.

OPP Cst. Paula Wright later said she wasn’t aware of any special stipulation on ambulance response. She planned to get back to the newspaper with a definite answer that was not delivered by press time on Tuesday morning.

However Haldimand’s EMS Manager Rob Grimwood said that there have been no instances in Caledonia where ambulances have delayed response while waiting for police.

“There is no such thing as a flag dispatch or land ambulance,” said Grimwood, who also serves as the county’s fire chief.

Ambulance response in Caledonia last week that reportedly took more than 30 minutes only took eight minutes, he contends. The ambulance responded from the Hagersville hospital and arrived at the residence seven minutes earlier than required by provincial regulation, he reported.

During the height of conflict in Caledonia two years ago there were maybe some areas that ambulances didn’t go, Grimwood said. However these days ambulances and fire trucks can respond to calls anywhere, even on the Sixth Line where Ontario Provincial Police are disallowed.

That agreement was brokered early on, he explained, noting that police do respond to ambulance calls when violence or the possibility of violence is reported by the dispatch centre.