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Health Care |
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Notes for remarks by Patrick Fry-Smith Thank you, Chuck. When a 911 call is placed for an ambulance, dispatchers typically provide instructions on how you can help the patient until the paramedics arrive. In extreme situations we can provide instructions on how to do CPR, the Heimlich manoeuvre or deliver a baby. Due to the current staffing shortfalls, centres are so busy training new staff that they are unable to maintain adequate training to its existing staff. Earlier this year eight dispatch centres across Ontario were told not to offer CPR instructions to people who dial 911. This is still in effect today at the London, Hamilton, Mississauga, Barrie, Sudbury, Lindsay, Oshawa and Renfrew centres. Dispatchers are swamped with overtime and training officers are too busy training new recruits to fill our centres they cannot keep up. The American Heart Association has found that a person has a 45 per cent better survival rate if dispatcher-assisted CPR is preformed. Of the thousands of people that die in Ontario each year from heart attacks that could be saved, it is deplorable. The people of Ontario are at risk until the crisis is fixed in ambulance dispatch. Dispatch centres continue to lose staff to police and fire, where they can make up to $20,000 more a year. Essential training such as Dispatcher assisted CPR is not being done as we scramble just too keep our heads above water. After years of abuse from the Tory government, hidden reports, bad faith bargaining and down right neglect, we are calling on the new Liberal government to solve this problem. Air and Land Ambulance Dispatch Campaign Index
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