Blackville mayor calls for better ambulance coverage for village

Blackville mayor and volunteer firefighter Chris Hennessy said something needs to be done about ambulance wait times in his community about 40 kilometres southwest of Miramichi. 

There have been a number of tragic accidents in and around the village and Hennessy said the ambulance coverage they need is never available. 

"It seems we never have an ambulance in Blackville," said Hennessy. "Our ambulance is always somewhere else and nothing is ever sent to replace it." 

Hennessy told Information Morning Fredericton he has been fighting to have the situation resolved with Ambulance New Brunswick for five years. 

"We gain a bit of ground and then we start right back where we came from again. We just don't get anywhere with it." 

Hennessy said he's been expressing his frustration in meetings with Ambulance New Brunswick.

"We need an ambulance in Blackville to cover. We're too far away from Miramichi and Fredericton." 

After numerous meetings, Hennessy said he was told the village would become a priority post. This meant if the ambulance from Blackville went out on a call, another ambulance would be sent to replace it. 

But the mayor said he recently learned every community is a priority post, which to him means no one is. 

Ambulance NB has told Hennessy staffing is the issue and they hope to find a solution. 

CBC has reached out to Ambulance New Brunswick and Medavie Health Services for an interview and are waiting for a response
 

Personal connection

But Hennessy said he wants to see more than charts created to show the targets they need to meet on their response times. 

"You don't see the bad in those numbers, the calls that they are late for, you never see those unless you're right there yourself and see them first hand or hear from a family member." 

When asked if this was affecting him personally, Hennessy said there is always a connection to everything in the village.

"It's such a tight knit place. If I can't provide ambulance coverage for our village, I'm doing the wrong thing." 

Hennessy said he didn't want to get into specific details about things that have happened at tragic accident scenes, but he points out the issue isn't with the paramedics, it's with Ambulance NB. 

"Our issue lies with management of the company,"  he said, adding the service is failing in its inability to provide staffing and coverage. 

In Nov. 2018, Blackville was one of five communities selected to take part in a two year pilot project to have a rapid response Unit stationed there seven days a week, 12 hours a day. Its intent was to respond to a call and provide treatment until a transporting ambulance could arrive. 

Hennessy said he'd like to see the units stationed in cities instead, which he thinks is more useful than placing them in rural areas where sometimes an ambulance is more than 20 minutes away.  

"It may free up the ambulances for the rural areas like Blackville."

Hennessy said there has to be a solution and he is calling on Ambulance NB to be accountable and find it. 

"There must be some sort of a plan we can come up with to make things work."