Ambulance services: a working tool available everywhere except the East

Medical workers in eastern Quebec are urging health authorities to implement a computer-aided dispatch system in ambulances. The tool is available almost everywhere in the province, except the district.

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The device, which looks like a tablet, provides all real-time information when an emergency calls.

In pre-hospital emergency care, this service is only accessible in Abitibi-Temiscamingo and Eastern Quebec.

In Basse-Saint-Laurent, Gaspésie and North Shore, auxiliary medical personnel are assigned to calls only by radio waves and details of the condition of victims and addresses of callers are transmitted orally.

The Federation of Pre-Hospital Employees of Quebec is urging health authorities to implement this system in ambulances in the region.

Without these tools, the workload for emergency dispatchers increases. The risk of errors is also greater.

For employees, the situation is not easy. Their union points out that the absence of this tool could have implications for the efficiency of services provided to the population.

In vehicles, medical personnel use GPS devices dating back a few years and their personal cell phones to enter addresses and, sometimes, geographic maps on paper.

It is difficult to explain why this system has not been implemented in the region yet.

“It puts an additional workload on our emergency medical dispatchers. If the tablet is installed in understaffed vehicles at the Emergency Communications Center of Eastern Quebec (CAUREQ), it will make the work easier and provide the right tools for the job. For the paramedic component, We often have paramedics who come from outside the area and don’t know the area and the vehicle’s tablet, it’s not only a commissioning tool, it’s also a mapping tool. “So, when the emergency call comes, we don’t have to look up addresses in maps and GPS,” he said. Jérémie Landry, vice-president of labor relations at the Federation of Pre-Hospital Employees of Quebec, explains.

Health authorities in Basse-Saint-Laurent indicate that computer-aided vehicle dispatch should be implemented in the coming months. Tests are currently being conducted.

Regarding the delay in implementation compared to other regions, CISSS du Bas-St-Laurent confirms that several factors explain the situation, such as access to the geographical location, the pandemic, and the financial authorization from the Ministry of Health and Social Services received this summer.