Newsletters Past & Present of the Sarnia Paramedic Association

News Letters of the Sarnia Paramedic Association

April 2000

For the Record......

For the record, last spring when the Sarnia Paramedics decided to become pro-active, phone calls, emails, and personal invites were made to all of the Lambton Paramedics. We wanted to at least be in the loop of what direction the county was leaning toward. What we discovered was that there was little consensus among the councilors and that they were not at all interested in considering any "operational" concerns.

The first meeting of our little group took place I believe 1 year ago this month. As I recall there was a delay in beginning the meeting because we waited in vain for a show of "rural" paramedics to arrive. There were only a couple and they were involved with the discussions and agreed to participate in a couple of ideas we all bounced around - including a petition for a non-profit public service to be protected and implemented for Lambton.

Now that the County has finally decided on a direction, it would be beneficial to all
paramedics to once again attempt to join together and stay apprised of the Health and Senior Service Committee's task of taking on the bigger job of operational decisions.

Wendy Manzie

>From the Newswire

Everyone has an opinion

Everyone has an opinion of who should run the ambulance services for Lambton County. For anyone who cares, this is my opinion and does not reflect the opinion of the Sarnia Paramedic Association.

In my opinion the downloading of the ambulance services to the municipalities was wrong in the first place. It should never have happened. What message is the provincial government sending us? It tells me that the provincial government does not think pre-hospital emergency care is an essential part of Ontario's health care system. If this is case they haven't asked the person who has had a cardiac arrest and was revived with rapid defibrillation and maintained on the way to the hospital. They haven't asked the diabetic person who needs intravenous dextrose quickly before the brain begins to die. How about the epileptic person who needs anti-seizure medication or the critically injured person from a car accident, also needing rapid transport to the emergency department. I think if the Provincial Government asked these people and understood what paramedics do and the service that they provide, the downloading would have never happened.

What is done is done. The Ontario government has shirked its responsibility to the taxpayer of this province. I can understand the reluctance of municipalities to take on the responsibilities of funding and operating the ambulance services. That's just it. It's a service provided to the public paid for with tax dollars. What each county has to decide for it's residents is if ambulance service is essential, or can it be put out for tender?

In my opinion the decision of Lambton county Council to take on the responsibility of the ambulance services themselves is one that should be commended. The County's decision tells me that ambulance services are an essential part of our community and important enough to manage themselves. To take on the responsibilities that the Ontario government found trivial and non-essential and ensure pre-hospital care for all residents of Lambton County.

Thank-you Lambton County Councilors for not shirking your responsibility.

Lambton Paramedic P2
Ray Gowan
Forest, Ontario

Editor's Note:

Don't sell yourself short Ray. Your opinion and that of the members is what makes the
policy of the Sarnia Paramedic Association. Your opinion counts.

To:
Lambton Health and Senior Services Committee

29 March 2000

I am writing to inform you that the Huron/Lambton Base Hospital Program is very pleased with County council's recent decision to manage the county's land ambulance service. As a major stakeholder in the delivery of ambulance services, we are looking forward to working with the county to ensure that the delivery of service is medically sound, well coordinated, cost efficient, and most important, patient focused.

I'm sure you read the latest Letter to the Editor dated Tuesday March 28,2000 entitled "Not all paramedics pleased with ambulance deal". If not, I have enclosed a copy for your review. When I read letters and articles like this, it disturbs me to see the animosity and in-fighting that occurs between the different types of service providers. As the Base Hospital Program Director for the past nine years, I have listened to all the arguments from the paramedics and the service providers. For example, the private ambulance service versus the hospital run service, a union service versus a non-union service, and one association versus another association. The list goes on and on. This latest article has only confirmed and strengthened my opinion that the decision made by County council was the right one.

In closing, Dr. Martin Lees and myself would like to make a presentation to County council in the near future about the Base Hospital program and the role that we play in the delivery of Emergency Health Services. Hopefully, we can alleviate some of the fears that are shared by some members of council.

Sincerely,
Dallas LaBarre
E.M.C., EMA III
Base Hospital Program Director

Question posed:
"What is the position of the Lambton County Association"
Paint me a picture......

The "Official" position....
It was the Ontario Paramedic Association, Lambton Chapter's stand early on that we did not want to get involved in the debate over the management option that would be chosen. We were not so bold to suggest that all of the counties paramedics all agree on the model that would be best. We have medics in the county who would have
preferred an RFP decision for reasons that they do not need to explain to any of us. We were intentionally quiet during the decision making process for that reason. Our intention and purpose for being is to address some of the operational issues that are affecting the patients of Lambton and increasing the job stress on those who are trying to help them. We are interested in security for the Paramedics as well, but this
could easily have been provided for with either model that was adopted. As a Paramedic and not a politician, it is far beyond my ability to suggest to the people of Lambton County Council, what model would best suit their long term plans for pre-hospital care. We have seen Durham Region put together a great plan for a county system, and I have also seen a very proactive and pro-paramedic plan for the county of Middlesex that has decided on an RFP, not because they are fiscally irresponsible, but because they feel it is the best option for their UTM. Now that the decision process on management is over, it is time to start looking at some of the operational issues that are concerning us all and we are in the process of setting a meeting for the membership and the board with representation from some groups that can give us further insight on the direction of the counties EMS system. I do hope that this has answered your questions and concerns.

Regards,
Jeff Brooks
President
Ontario Paramedic Association
Lambton County Chapter
11 March 2000

and a follow up......

In response to your question of where has the O.P.A. been during this time it has always been the position of the O.P.A.L.C.C. to concern itself with operational issues and not with which model County Council should utilize in providing the service.

On a personal note for the past 10 years I have been, and still am, employed by Mac Gilpin. He has treated my fellow employees and myself exceptionally well. Mac is not only my employer of whom I am very loyal to, but I also consider him a good friend.
I did not feel it proper nor moral to lead a political assault, of which may have brought about his personal demise, by being an advocate for a County run system. That's not to say I'm opposed to a County run service nor am I beating a drum for the R.F.P. process, the model is irrelevant to the O.P.A.

The O.P.A.L.C.C. will now turn it's attention to the task at hand of ensuring that operational concerns are addressed with the key word being "more". Thanks for your letter and I hope this sheds some light on our position.

Best Regards - Steve Robinson
Ontario Paramedic Association
Lambton County Chapter
12 March 2000

Another note from the Chair:

At the next meeting of the Sarnia Paramedic Association, in mid-April, I plan to bring to the members my reasons why I believe the association should welcome the paramedics of rural Lambton County. The inevitable "single employer" is just around the corner. I believe that a single association with representation from across Sarnia/Lambton would better serve all of the members, and help us with future discussion with the County.

Tom Moore-Chair 2000