Wolfe Island Residents Raise Concerns on State of Ambulance Service: Open Letter
October 4, 2024
Frontenac County Council:
Please restore fully staffed ambulance service on Wolfe Island, backfilling it with a mainland ambulance when it is off-island transporting a patient.
Service on Wolfe Island is on a 10-year decline:
Response-time on the Island has become increasingly unacceptable. The basic CTAS-1 target measure is eight minutes, whereas paramedic response time for Wolfe Island emergencies is an hour at least, and much longer for nearby Simcoe Island and the "Foot" of Wolfe Island. Our patients will NEVER arrive at hospital -- a hospital we can SEE from Frontenac Islands -- within the golden hour when medical assistance is most effective.
Not only do our response-times badly trail that of the mainland townships in Frontenac County, service is not nearly that of Toronto Islands, with its similar demographics.
The "seamless" policy does no good on an island, which by definition has no neighbouring ambulance services, as do mainland townships.
Response-time is so inadequate on Wolfe and adjacent islands that some individuals seek to transport patients themselves, rather than wait for Frontenac Paramedics. I have spoken to three -- two heart and one bee-sting. The bee-sting patient was driving himself!
We so appreciate the efforts of our volunteers -- firefighters, AED neighbours -- and ferry crew, but Frontenac County's retreat from Wolfe Island is crushing us, especially the ferry. This past summer, there were ambulance calls at least every four days, some of which paralyzed and threw off ferry schedules for hours. In July, calls came almost every second day! Call rate does not appear to have slackened in September.
When reassigning the Island's ambulance to Kingston in 2023, you assumed there would soon be a ferry every 30 minutes, i.e., two ferries alternating every 60 minutes. However, MTO is choosing to operate the new ferry, alone, on an 80-minute schedule -- so ~ 1/3 as often as you assumed when deciding to service the Island from the mainland.
Abysmal response-times plus ferry disruptions are shredding the socioeconomic fabric of Wolfe Island, e.g.,
Please restore onsite emergency service to Wolfe Island and stop response-time decline as well as unnecessary disruption of the ferry service, OUR only highway.
Margaret Dochoda
287 Carpenter Pt Rd
Wolfe Island, Ontario
Please restore fully staffed ambulance service on Wolfe Island, backfilling it with a mainland ambulance when it is off-island transporting a patient.
Service on Wolfe Island is on a 10-year decline:
1974 fully trained, volunteer emergency responders, eventually with ambulance, served Wolfe Is;
2015 Frontenac County and its union replaced volunteers with its professional paramedics;
2016 a Wolfe Island base was constructed;
2022 only SIX shifts were staffed in 2022;
2023 Wolfe Island's ambulance and resources were assigned to Kingston.
The union apparently did not support re-assignment of Wolfe Island ambulance and resources to Kingston. Shauna Dunn, then-President of OPSEU Local 462, sent a letter to members of Frontenac County Council on Tuesday, February 14, 2023, asking them not to go ahead with the plan to cut the Wolfe Island service and to instead "approve the second option, which would see Wolfe Island staffed as a 12hr truck ... I believe that this option would ensure better coverage for the residents of Frontenac County and the City of Kingston, while simultaneously addressing paramedic workload concerns.” (Frontenac News)
Response-time on the Island has become increasingly unacceptable. The basic CTAS-1 target measure is eight minutes, whereas paramedic response time for Wolfe Island emergencies is an hour at least, and much longer for nearby Simcoe Island and the "Foot" of Wolfe Island. Our patients will NEVER arrive at hospital -- a hospital we can SEE from Frontenac Islands -- within the golden hour when medical assistance is most effective.
Not only do our response-times badly trail that of the mainland townships in Frontenac County, service is not nearly that of Toronto Islands, with its similar demographics.
The "seamless" policy does no good on an island, which by definition has no neighbouring ambulance services, as do mainland townships.
Response-time is so inadequate on Wolfe and adjacent islands that some individuals seek to transport patients themselves, rather than wait for Frontenac Paramedics. I have spoken to three -- two heart and one bee-sting. The bee-sting patient was driving himself!
We so appreciate the efforts of our volunteers -- firefighters, AED neighbours -- and ferry crew, but Frontenac County's retreat from Wolfe Island is crushing us, especially the ferry. This past summer, there were ambulance calls at least every four days, some of which paralyzed and threw off ferry schedules for hours. In July, calls came almost every second day! Call rate does not appear to have slackened in September.
When reassigning the Island's ambulance to Kingston in 2023, you assumed there would soon be a ferry every 30 minutes, i.e., two ferries alternating every 60 minutes. However, MTO is choosing to operate the new ferry, alone, on an 80-minute schedule -- so ~ 1/3 as often as you assumed when deciding to service the Island from the mainland.
Abysmal response-times plus ferry disruptions are shredding the socioeconomic fabric of Wolfe Island, e.g.,
Older family members and younger commuters move to the mainland.
Our medical clinic is no longer staffed.
Our public school is threatened with closure.
Services and deliveries are increasingly reluctant to come to the Island.
Please restore onsite emergency service to Wolfe Island and stop response-time decline as well as unnecessary disruption of the ferry service, OUR only highway.
Margaret Dochoda
287 Carpenter Pt Rd
Wolfe Island, Ontario