Average ambulance response times have increased slightly in the Pubnico area since an adjustment was made to the ambulance deployment plan, but response times for the greater Yarmouth-and-district area, which includes Pubnico and other communities, have gone down, according to figures provided to the Municipality of Argyle.
Despite the increase in average response times in the Pubnico area for the nine-month period from Feb. 1, 2017, when the deployment change took effect, to Nov. 1, they are within the provincial government’s standards, the municipality was told in a letter from Emergency Health Services.
The municipality, meanwhile, is looking for more detailed information regarding the Pubnico ambulance service, including more specific data about calls, as well as health department standards for response times.
Concern was raised in the Pubnico area earlier this year after the ambulance deployment plan was readjusted, a move local residents said was reducing their coverage.
EHS officials have said it’s a matter of making the best use of resources and that the system is continually monitored and evaluated to try to ensure ambulances are where they need to be and that communities are covered.
In October, representatives of the ambulance service spoke about the matter to Argyle municipal council. Many Pubnico-area residents turned out for that meeting to express their concerns about slower response times. At that session, council requested EHS provide data regarding response times. The municipality got a letter back from EHS that was part of the agenda for council's meeting of Dec. 12..
According to the letter, for the period Feb. 1 to Nov. 1 of this year – the first nine months after the deployment change – the average response time for emergency calls (calls with sirens and lights) in the Pubnico area was nine minutes and 30 seconds, two-and-a-half minutes slower than for the same timeframe in 2016 – Feb. 1 to Nov. 1 – when it was seven minutes and one second.
However, the letter says that since the adjustment to the ambulance deployment plan took effect, response times for Yarmouth and district – which includes Yarmouth, Meteghan, the Pubnicos and surrounding areas – have gone in the opposite direction.
According to the letter, the average response time for emergency calls in Yarmouth and district from Feb. 1 to Nov. 1 of this year was nine minutes and 54 seconds, compared to an average of 10 minutes and 49 seconds for the same time period in 2016, a 55-second improvement.
“Response times for the greater area of Yarmouth and District have decreased, which was our overall intent for making the changes,” Jeff Fraser, EHS director of provincial operations, said in the letter.
Referring to the response times for the Pubnico area, he wrote that these “are below the response time requirements of government.”
