Local medical first responders are back on call in Dorchester and Memramcook

After nine months, Ambulance New Brunswick has listened to local authorities and will return to the practice of dispatching medical calls to the twelve fire departments in the province trained as medical first responders. Dorchester Fire Department and Memramcook Fire Department are two of those twelve, and the news has been welcomed in both communities.

Dorchester Fire Chief Greg Partridge says he is “very happy for our community, very happy for the province,” and is hoping that Ambulance NB makes good on a promise to offer dispatching to other fire departments interested in taking on the responsibility. “I’d like to see it expanded,” says Partridge. “That would be a plus for everybody.”

Memramcook Mayor Maxime Bourgeois says he was also happy to receive the news on Wednesday that Ambulance NB would make the change. “We were putting a lot of pressure, and they were saying that they were working on it,” says Bourgeois, “but obviously, we were a little bit skeptical about how fast they could resolve this issue.”

It’s been about nine months since Ambulance NB stopped medical call dispatching. In March, spokesperson Christianna Williston told CHMA via email that the organization didn’t have the mandate to dispatch to fire departments, and that they had determined doing so was no longer sustainable.

On Wednesday, Williston confirmed the return to medical first responders dispatching would take place October 5, and that it would happen “through existing resources”. Williston went on to say, “it continues to be a challenging time within our health system, and we deeply appreciate the continued assistance and partnership of local fire departments.“

Bourgeois says he sees the service as a win-win for both Ambulance NB and local residents. Ambulance NB never fully abandoned local medical dispatching, calling on local departments for the highest acuity calls and when there were excessive delays for ambulance response. “They were already doing a certain process and sort of analyzing the situation,” says Bourgeois, “so for me to add an extra step to just dispatch the fire department for certain type of calls was sort of a no brainer.”

In the spring, CHMA spoke with two Memramcook residents who shared their stories of local medical first responders. One woman credits the quick arrival of the Memramcook Fire Department with saving her son’s life. Another had to call 911 after the policy change in January, and found herself waiting on the ground outside in winter weather for nearly an hour, wondering where her local firefighters were.

Bourgeois says the issue has been a major one in Memramcook, one of the biggest since he was elected mayor in 2021. “We have a really solid fire department, really well trained, well respected in the community,” says Bourgeoius, “and the fire department wanted to be called… The delays for an ambulance can take up to half an hour, 40 minutes. So it was very worrisome that our fire department wasn’t being called.”

Bourgeois says the Union of Municipalities of New Brunswick (UMNB) and L’Association francophone des municipalités du Nouveau-Brunswick (AFMNB) both cooperated to help push for the return of the local dispatching. “It definitely demonstrated how when we work together things can move along fairly fast,” says Bourgeois.

Tantramar mayor and UMNB president Andrew Black was also involved in the pressure to restore medical call dispatching, but Black was not available to comment on Wednesday.

Neither the Sackville Fire Department nor the Point de Bute Fire Department will see any change with their dispatching, since they are not part of the twelve departments that participate. Medical first response requires additional training, about one weekend every two years, says Partridge. And his department in Dorchester has also acquired equipment to help with medical calls. He believes there are other departments in the province that would take on the responsibility, but it is up to each community.

“Every department is different,” says Partridge. Some have better ambulance response times, he says, and some many not have the capacity for the additional training. For Dorchester, he says, “it doesn’t work not to have first responders.”

“Every community has to see their priorities and what training they’re willing to do. But I think it should be offered to every department that wants to do it,” says Partridge. “I think it’s very important.”

Erica Butler is a reporter and news director at CHMA 106.9 FM in Sackville. This reporting was made possible by CHMA, with funding from the Local Journalism Initiative and CHMA’s local community partners. Please consider supporting community radio by donating to our friends at CHMA.