There’s good news and bad news in the number of Hastings-Quinte ambulance calls so far in 2019.
A report to the Emergency Services Committee on Wednesday indicates work has continued this year to decrease the number of ambulance non-life-threatening inter-hospital transfers, but Emergency Services Chief Doug Socha says there’s a jump in overall emergency life-threatening calls.
He tells Quinte News accidents on Highway 401 play a role in some of that.
Socha says the goal is to decrease the non-emergency inter-facility calls by 50% this year, “Currently, we’re seeing a 30% reduction. So far, we’re going in the right direction.”
Quinte West Councillor Terry Cassidy, who was Acting Chair of the committee, asked if there is anything the municipalities can do to help.
Socha said 50% is just a goal, and Quinte Health Care has a task force working on decreasing the number of those calls.
He indicated developing a flow chart for the hospital system will help, and the one that the ambulance dispatch is using “is not helpful.”
