Close calls, crucial lost minutes prompt 911 changes

Towns in the Humber Valley and Bay of Islands area are demanding changes to the 911 system, and it looks like they're going to get them.

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Krista Ricketts, a councillor in McIvers, said her mother called 911 last month because her uncle was having trouble breathing but an ambulance from Corner Brook was dispatched rather than the local fire department.

She said the response time was about 50 minutes instead of less than 15 and that's unacceptable.

"She only lives less than a two minute walk from the fire hall … so by the time that they get there and get their gear, you would assume that they would be there within about 10 to 15 minutes," said Ricketts.

 "If it's a medical emergency or a fire emergency, we would hope that, knowing that our fire department is capable, that they send out our fire department as well as an ambulance … They have oxygen, they have a defibrillator, if need be they can keep you alive until an ambulance shows."

Ricketts said her mother called 911 a second time asking for the fire department to be dispatched, and they arrived within 10 minutes of that call. She said her uncle may not have survived if the fire department hadn't shown up first.

Response time critical

The new province-wide 911 emergency call system which came into effect just over a year ago funnels all calls from Newfoundland and Labrador to dispatch centres in St. John's and Corner Brook.

Pasadena fire chief Darren Gardner knows all about response time and feels this new system has downgraded what they already had.

"Province-wide 911 is a great thing in concept. It's just the way it was rolled out in the Bay of Islands and Humber Valley area … We already had a very efficient 911 system in my opinion," he told CBC's Corner Brook Morning Show.

"The RNC (Royal Newfoundland Constabulary) handled our 911 calls and our dispatching and that had gone on for probably 2 1/2 decades and we had gotten to a point where it really worked well and communication back and forth between their organization and ours was really quite good."

Under the new structure, Gardner said 911 calls that are deemed by an operator to be medical, are directed to Western Health and then paramedics make the call as to whether or not a fire department would be dispatched.

Those minutes are really crucial. You've got 10 minutes to really make a difference.- Darren Gardner

"It kind of got cumbersome and confusing because who was responsible for making that call at first?  Who was answering the line on the hospital's end?" he said.

"Those minutes are really crucial … and you're talking about what they refer to as the golden 10 minutes. You've got 10 minutes to really make a difference — after that period your odds are going drastically downhill fast and you're fighting a real battle then," he said.

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"Every case is different, but under the old system where it was directly dispatched through the RNC, then you know, seven minutes was usually our response time."

Changes coming

The minister responsible for fire and emergency services, Eddie Joyce, agrees and said that the provincial 911 centre should automatically call in the closest fire department if it's equipped to handle medical calls.

He added that this was what communities in the area were used to when the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary took care of 911 calls, and he wants it back that way.

"I know they've been working on it for a while, and I know now that it can be done very easily, and it will be done very easily, so this is just a point of principle … There's no extra resources needed, there's no extra money needed."

Joyce says municipalities and fire departments in the Bay of Islands and Humber Valley are being surveyed to see what services they can provide.

He said once that information is available, he expects the change back to a multi-agency notification system should happen within weeks.

According to Gardner, that's good news for the area, and he feels the minister's timeline is realistic.

"I think it's very encouraging ... It's going to be interesting to see how it all rolls out but it's certainly a step in the right direction," he said.

"It shouldn't be that difficult, if it's going into a common point which it is ... it's just a matter of training and putting the policies in place."