The Lucknow Sentinel, 2013-11-27, Page 5Wednesday, November 27, 2013 • Lucknow Sentinel 5
Establishment of bases in Seaforth, Clinton
Paul Cluff
Goderich Signal Star
Sweeping changes have been proposed
to Huron County's EMS including estab-
lishing bases in Clinton and Seaforth and
removing two of the county's fleet of rapid
response vehicles.
Consultant Daryl Cully's recommenda-
tions, reviewed at the Wed. Nov 20 county
council meeting, come after months of
consultations with stakeholders, including
one -on -on meetings with councillors.
The review was recommended by George
Cuff - a consultant hired to examine over-
all county operations and ways to improve
them.
Huron EMS operates within or close to
budget and response times are good for
the most part, said Cully, who reviewed
statistics, budgets and staff workloads for
his report. Huron EMS was rated above
average in its last review by the Ministry of
Health, which sets standards for upper tier
municipalities.
Cully's report touched on everything from
operational issues to staff morale to what
the county council focus should be when it
comes to EMS.
Cully recommended base changes:
establishing locations in Seaforth and Clin-
ton, converting Tuckersmith to an admin-
istration base and moving the St. Joseph
post to Zurich.
"Vehicles should be where the calls are
occurring," he said, referring to his data.
Cully said Huron EMS have the lowest
response goal/targets in southwestem and
eastem Ontario. According to data, for the
most critical calls, Huron EMS responds
within eight minutes 51 per cent of the
time.
Eight minutes is the provincial response
time standard - the time the paramedic
crew is notified until they arrive on scene.
The base set-up recommended by Cully
would ensure critical calls are reached in
the quickest time, he said.
The alignment is an end -around from a
previous consultant's findings, though
requirements have changed over the years,
including response time targets.
Cully suggested eliminating a policy of
refurbishing vehicles in favour of buying
new. Refurbishing hasn't proven to save
money long-term, he said. He also sug-
gested buying SUVs and phasing out the
use of pickup trucks and equipping EMS
vehicles with snow tires byyear's end.
There is no data to suggest usage of
rapid response vehicles has helped with
response times and suggested removing
two from the fleet and staffing an addi-
tional ambulance over a 12 -hour period.
In a list of overall recommendations,
Cully said EMS management should be
more inclusive of paramedics in overall
decision-making. Action should be taken
on minor decisions and not left for council
to decide when already approved by
budget, he added.
Cully found a disconnect between
county council, EMS management and
paramedics. He suggested the chief and
deputy chief dedicate more time to station
visits for meetings with paramedics, so
concems don't fester.
Paramedics have expressed concern
with the loss of the 24-hour shift, and sin-
gle staffing of rapid response vehicles. He
also noted a staff concern about frequent
movement from location to location in the
county, essentially to have EMS on the
ready. It leads to staff sitting for extended
Bruce Power playing coal reduction role
Former U.S. Vice -President Al Gore and
Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne marked
a precedent -setting climate achievement
on Nov 21, as Ontario prepared to go coal
free by the end of the year.
The return of 3,000 megawatts of Bruce
Power nuclear over the past decade has
played a major role in improving Ontario's
air quality and helping the province shut
down its coal-fired generating stations.
With the revitalization of the Bruce site
since 2001, Bruce Power has generated 70
per cent of the energy needed to shut
down all of Ontario's coal plants, said Dun-
can Hawthorne, Bruce Power's President
and CEO.
"Bruce Power nuclear is a low-cost and
clean source of reliable energy, and more
Bruce Power nuclear means less electricity
from coal," Hawthorne said. "The revitali-
zation of the Bruce Power site has contrib-
uted to the phase out of coal, along with a
93 per cent decrease in sulphur
emissions:'
When coal-fired generation is phased
out by the end of the year, clean and low-
cost electricity from Bruce Power's eight -
unit site will power one in three Ontario
homes, schools, hospitals and businesses,
Hawthorne added.
For more information on Bruce Power's
contribution to coal phase out and cleaner
air, visitwww.nuclearupcoaldown.ca.
South Bruce Grey Health Centre rated 'top preformer'
South Bruce Grey Health Centre
(SBGHC) has been named as a top per-
former for patient experience in a
report released by the National
Research Corporation Canada (NRCC).
The report highlights Ontario hospi-
tals that have excellent performance
ratings based on two global patient
experience rating questions:
"Overall, how would you rate the care
you received at the hospital?"
"Would you recommend this hospital
to your family or friends?"
SBGHC is named as a top performer
(between the 90th and 99th percentile)
in several categories:
• Overall acute inpatient care SBGHC
Chesley, Durham and Walkerton Sites
(all Ontario hospital peer groups
combined)
• Overall emergency department care
- SBGHC Chesley and Durham Sites (all
Ontario hospital peer groups
combined)
• Overall emergency department care
- SBGHC Durham Site (small Ontario
hospitals peer group)
• Would recommend the emergency
department - SBGHC Durham site (all
Ontario hospital peer groups
combined)
NRCC patient surveys focus on the
patient experience and allow patients
to evaluate the services they received
and their interaction with hospital
staff.
"One of our strategic goals is to make
positive patient experiences and good
health outcomes the focus of everything
we do," said Paul Rosebush, SBGHC
president and CEO. "Feedback from
our patients is one of the best ways we
can measure our performance."
The results of this report will be used
by SBGHC, along with other quality
indicators, to continue to strive for
excellence.
The full report is available on the
National Research Corporation's web-
site (http://www.nationalresearch.ca/
research-and-resources/reports/).
periods, away from bases, to cover off the county.
More than two-thirds of call volume is vehicle movements, Cully
said.
"One of the reasons we are here is staff morale."
He suggested county council focus on strategic levels and not
operational issues or paramedic operational concems, though he
noted that EMS shortages should be reported on a monthly basis
to the CAO.
Cully said it is important to let the community know what is
going well with its EMS, suggesting there is a lot of misinformation
in the community that could be clarified by an annual report. The
consultant's EMS review contract with the county, approved in
June, was for $35,980.
Council went into closed session after Cully's presentation.
Afterwards, they agreed to receive the information as
presented.
"I think the general feeling is there needs to be some improve-
ment, but we have been exceeding some standards across the
province;' said Coun. Deb Shewfelt, the Mayor of Goderich.
Shewfelt hesitated to say when and if changes could be made,
but he hopes theywould come at budget time and after long con-
versations. "We started to make changes and I think sometimes
changes result in other changes. We needed a total review of how
we are operating. It's a moving target, a growing target. We need to
take (EMS services) to the next level"
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