Long waits for ambulances in Baie Verte putting lives at risk, say officials
First responders with the Baie Verte fire department had to wait about 45 minutes for an ambulance to arrive after an industrial accident at the Anaconda mine Saturday, according to the town's fire chief Lorne Head.
"It gets very stressful waiting there on the scene — waiting for an ambulance to show up."
Head said he got the call about the incident on Saturday evening, just as the town's Christmas parade had begun.
A crew from his department headed out to the mine, where a man was "on his back" and conscious, Head said. They got the man on a backboard and into the department's rescue vehicle to keep him warm while they waited for the ambulance.
It was about 70 km away, near the intersection of Highway 410 and the Trans-Canada Highway, because it has to service both the Baie Verte area and the Springdale area.
"It just puts so much stress on you at a scene when you're waiting for paramedics to arrive."
Head said he'd like to see more paramedics hired — at least enough to staff the second ambulance at the Baie Verte medical centre.
He said the paramedics working now are stretched so thin he's afraid his department will get a call some night about a vehicle collision and it will be the ambulance that has crashed while rushing to another site.
"My fear is that one of those days we're going to be pulling them out of car wreck or an ambulance wreck and then we got no one to call on."
'Gambling with someone's life'
Long ambulance response times is a long-standing problem for the Baie Verte area, says the town's mayor.
Brandon Philpott said he's discussed the problem with a number of government officials including Brian Warr, the MHA for the area. He said the delay at the mine wasn't the only incident to highlight the problems that come with sharing ambulance resources between Springdale and Baie Verte, which are nearly 100 kms apart by highway.
"They're just gambling with someone's life," he said.
Philpott said a year ago a man fell and was bleeding, and the fire department had to treat him and bring him to the hospital because the ambulance was again at the junction between the TCH and Route 410. He said the ambulance didn't arrive until well after the man had been seen by doctors.
"It's only a matter of time before something serious happens," he said, noting that there are three industrial sites in the area at which serious accidents can happen: the Anaconda mine, its mill and the Rambler mine.
In both the incident with the man who fell and the Anaconda mine incident, he said a second ambulance was parked at the medical centre in town while the responding ambulance was driving out from the junction, but there was no staff to operate the second ambulance.
"It's the personnel that we're missing," he said, adding that a job posting for a paramedic has been up for a while, but that the job offer is for an on-call employee.
"I don't think they'll ever fill it," he said, adding that it'll be tough to find someone who'll move out to Baie Verte for an on-call gig.
A statement from Anaconda Mining Inc. confirmed there was a personal injury at the mine and the man was taken to the hospital where it was determined he had minor injuries.
"We will conduct a review regarding the incident which will include a discussion regarding solutions for increasing emergency response times," the statement read.
The province's occupational health and safety division is investigating the accident at the mine.
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