Editor;
I have personally witnessed events, which have greatly hindered many patients’ care and have possibly caused others to lose their lives.
Firstly, many of the private ambulance services in this (Conception Bay North) area are run out of a funeral home. Conflict of interest?
It would seem that way the company would stand to make a profit whether a patient lives or dies. I’ve spoken with families who have been mortified to witness a hearse appear at the scene of a loved one’s emergency, before the patient has even passed away!
Oftentimes, emergency personnel who are dispatched to the scene of an emergency battle exhaustion as they have been on the clock for 24 hours straight or longer. According to labour board, employees are entitled to an eight-hour break every 24 hours.
Those employed in the emergency field are somehow exempt. Wouldn’t it make sense to ensure those engaged in such high-stress situations are well rested, in order to properly perform their job?
I’ve witnessed ambulances dispatched to calls without oxygen tanks, stair chairs and reliable diagnostic equipment. Some private services cannot justify spending the money in order to maintain sterile equipment.
A colleague of mine recounted a story in which the employer mandated the oxygen masks be washed and reused after they had come in contact with bodily fluids. Some services do not have stretchers for overweight patients but instead rely on stretchers not designed to hold them. This increases the risk of injury to both the EMS worker and patient.
Some EMS workers will find themselves forced to dispatch calls, a practice which likely falls outside of their realm of experience. In one such instance, while trying to send an emergency crew to the scene of a seriously injured patient, the untrained dispatcher accidentally gave them the wrong address. This delay resulted in the patient succumbing to his injuries.
On top of this, dispatchers are only required to complete the most basic of duties. For example, when an emergency call is made dispatchers rarely collect more than the location and the reason for the call.
This is a wasted opportunity to improve patient care as dispatchers can help console the person while guiding them through basic First Aid and CPR practices.
If back up is needed while you are on scene, a paramedic may be unable to get it. Private services are not paid to send additional ambulances to help even though several neighbouring services may be available.
In order to cut costs, large areas are regularly serviced by one ambulance. If two emergencies were to happen at once there would be inadequate ambulances available to respond to them.
Services compete for calls, as they are paid on a per call basis. This means if a call is made to the service farthest away from where the emergency is taking place, then that service will respond to the emergency instead of appropriately redirecting the call to the closest service.
The move towards a government-run EMS field would greatly improve patient care and response time in the province and set Newfoundland on par with the other provinces.
Crystal Sparkes,
Bay Roberts
Crystal Sparkes is a native of Toronto, Ontario, but is currently residing in Bay Roberts. She is a paramedic working in Conception Bay North and plans to move back to Ontario in 2013.
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I totally agree with the above comment. I am currently working for a Private Ambulance Service in the province of Newfoundland and the patient care standards are well below any other province in Canada. In the way of health and patient care, we are currently ten years or more behind! There is absolutely no reason for it. Like Crystal, I have also personally witnessed situations where patient's lives have been put at risk, because the company's main concern is to make more money. These companies must ensure that there is adequate coverage for their area, in regards to the number of ambulances available. Instead of having enough ambulances available in their area, they will send most of them on long transfers across the island and keep ONE ambulance to cover an extremely large area, in order to make more money. Because they make most of their money on the transfers. There is absolutely no concern for the community and for patient care. Some ambulance services have no Paramedics and run only with EMR's. No offense to all the EMR's out there. Many of them are great, do their jobs very well and have helped and/or saved lives at one point or another but standard of care should be at the level of a paramedic, bare minimum. This alone would greatly improve patient care. We are one of the only provinces that even allow an EMR to be on an ambulance. I have also seen ambulances that are not properly stocked and have been missing vital equipment. I have witnessed crews being sent to calls with ambulances that are not in proper working condition (blowing out black smoke, barely enough power to move it). As stated above, the dispatchers are not trained properly and do not assist with patient care at all. They literally answer the phone, get a name and number and hang up. There is no assistance with basic first aid measures such as stopping major bleeding, no direction in regards to beginning CPR, checking an airway or a pulse, or assisting someone who is choking. Assisting with these things would also greatly improve patient care. Again, no offense to all the dispatchers out there. This is based totally on what I've witnessed within the Private Ambulance sector. In regards to the lack of appreciation, you're right. There is absolutely no appreciation at all. In the two years I've worked as a Paramedic in this province I have not been thanked once. I've never received a "good job". Instead, I'm looked down on because I don't do overtime shifts. For all of you who don't know how it works. We work 24 hours shifts and get paid for 12 hours of that 24. So this means you could potentially be working 24 hours straight and get paid for 12. And yes, some days we only do one or two calls. But, being woken up at 2am after working 10 hours straight through the day, and having to: #1 - drive an ambulance and #2 - calculate the medication you might have to give to a 2 day old baby and actually do it in a calm and professional fashion..this can get to be exhausting. Not only physically, but also mentally. I have personally witnessed patient's die in front of me and have been offered no debriefing, or asked if I was ok. Instead, they call me to let me know that I have an early morning transfer at 7am sharp. I receive no benefits, no overtime pay, no sick or personal days. I am around sickness and contagious diseases all the time but I cannot afford to take a sick day if I get sick. There is something wrong with this system and there is so much more that the public is unaware of. Something needs to be done to improve it. The Private Services need to be more regulated and the public sector needs to step in and ensure that this is happening.