Some counties in Eastern Ontario are calling on the province to provide financial support for fire departments answering medical calls, and that’s an issue in Belleville and the Quinte region as well.
Belleville Fire Chief Mark MacDonald is also fire coordinator for Mutual Aid in the area.
He says fire departments have not been compensated by the province for medical calls since about the year 2000.
He says, for instance, firefighters at a medical scene who use their defibrillators would receive one in exchange from the paramedics, but “that doesn’t happen very often now.”
In 2015, Quinte region fire, not including Prince Edward County, answered 781 medical calls, more than half of those in Belleville.
MacDonald says the cost of the medical calls, regarding equipment and training, is a concern to all the chiefs in the area.
MacDonald says, of all the fire department calls in Belleville and Hastings County, about 30% are medical calls.
