Hastings-Quinte EMS - Hastings County Ontario, Canada

[peterose313 345]

Hastings Quinte EMS has been providing ambulance service for the county since 2003. Currently there are 5 base stations throughout the county. 1 in the town of Madoc, Bancroft (each of these are the closest towns from my cottage. Bancroft is 30 minutes north and Madoc is 30 south. HUGE difference in overall quality of life between the 2.), Quinte West (Trenton, which is where the Royal Canadian Air Force base is located), and 2 stations in the city of Belleville (nearest city from my cottage, which is an hour south). There's also a post that's operated 12 hours a day in the town of Tweed as well.

There are approximately 150 members within the EMS. Each HQ-EMS base runs between 24,000 and 27,000 calls per year. Hastings Quinte-EMS has about 6 stations located within the county. The vast majority of calls are low priority (Code 1, 2)

The BLS paramedics have 2 years of Community College as well as an EMCA certification. Some BLS members may be trained in one or more ALS skills such as IV therapy.

The ALS paramedics have approximately 1 full year of post-secondary education in addition to the 2 year PCP Program. There are approximately 35 ALS certified medics.

Vehicles consist of 4 Emerg Response Units, 17 Paramedic Ambulances, 1 emergency support unit, 1 emergency support trailer (specially equipped for Hazmat and Decontamination), and 1 maintenance and supply vehicle. All paramedic ambulances are modular types. The ERU's are suv's, so they're basically what we call fly cars. They're usually staffed by management staff or supervisors. They don't transport. When dispatched, they run with a paramedic ambulance.

All units are supplied with GPS and AVL (auto vehicle location) to allow the supervisors and dispatch to receive up to the minute accuracy and be able to locate an address quickly. All vehicles are also supplied with an on board wireless laptop that allows crews to pull up a digital map display in real-time.

Coverage area for Hastings County is 2,356 sq mi reaching about 100 miles from north to south with a population of about 135,000 but probably quadruples during summer months from all the cottagers and Quinte West municipality is 191 sq miles.

Edited August 26, 2012 by peterose313

[Haggerty 1029 16]

Nice shots, weird front wheels

[peterose313 345]

Nice shots, weird front wheels

Thanks and I hadn't even noticed them until you pointed that out. I would have liked to have gotten some shots of the inside but they had a patient in the back and were just getting ready to txp to the local hospital.

It's a country hospital with typically 1 doctor on call at a time. I sliced my hand open earlier in the summer and sat in the waiting room for 5 hours before I was finally seen by the doctor. If it's a call they can't handle, they'll txp the patient via ambulance to Belleville Hospital or Kingston Hospital. Belleville is an hour and a half drive by car from there and Kingston about another hour beyond that.

[RJB896 12]

Great Shots Thanks for Sharing!

Edited August 30, 2012 by RJB896