![]() "This new dispatch system will be much more discriminating. Under the existing system, about 70 per cent of calls end up being deemed that highest Code 4, Poirier explained, so the system might treat cardiac arrest and abdominal pain equally. "When we have a number of calls held in the queue, we may be assigning and reassigning and reassigning paramedics to Code 4 calls that may not necessarily be Code 4." "Right now, sometimes we're chasing calls," he said. Paramedic Chief Pierre Poirier said the system will help prioritize people in life-threatening condition. WATCH | Ottawa's paramedic chief on the MPDS:ĭuration 0:58 Featured VideoOttawa is finally moving to a medical priority dispatch system, which was recommended during a 2004 coroner's inquest. Poirier is convinced the dispatch system will be a game-changer for the dispatchers who serve not only Ottawa, but also Cornwall, Stormont, Dundas & Glengarry and the United Counties of Prescott & Russell. After that, mayor after mayor advocated through the years for the technology. He can't say if Martin's death would have been prevented had the improved dispatch system been in place but says "We would have arrived quicker and maybe her chance of survival might have been better."Įven before the inquest, when several paramedic services were being amalgamated, Poirier said a consultant had recommended Ottawa move to MPDS. Ottawa paramedic Chief Pierre Poirier remembers when Martin died. "We listen to the news and we hear the zero response times. We know exactly what that means for a family because we've lived it," said Yenson. Last year saw soaring call volumes, dispatchers had no ambulance to send a record-breaking 1,806 times and 60 staff per month were away with workplace injuries. The sisters have watched over the years as ambulance shortages have become the norm. It probed how rural areas were often underserved while ambulances were tied up in urban Ottawa. The inquest jury concluded paramedics were short-staffed and underfunded. Newspaper articles of 20 years ago sound remarkably like the news stories of today. "We thought by doing the inquest it was going to help, but obviously … 20 years later there's people still going through it." Response times still an issue "We didn't want anybody else to go through what we did," said Judy Gannon, Martin's eldest daughter. She arrived at hospital without vital signs. The inquest into her death revealed an ambulance sent Martin's way had been rerouted to a different high priority call, which was later downgraded as less serious.Ī different ambulance had to be dispatched and took Martin. But it never came."įrom left to right: sisters Tammy Yenson, Brenda Wootton, Judy Gannon and Marlyn Cox are discouraged recommendations from the 2004 inquest into their mother's death, aimed at replacing Ottawa's dispatch system, might only now be implemented. "And I said, 'Oh, I can hear them.' And she said, 'Yeah, they're on their way.' So we hung up. "When I was on the phone with the dispatch the second time, she was telling me that they were en route. And then I could hear sirens," remembers Yenson. 14, 2003 and was struggling to breathe as she waited 20 minutes for an ambulance to arrive at her home in the rural village of Greely. Martin, 75, was suffering a heart attack on Oct. "I just don't understand why we invested so much time, effort and money into an inquest that's just … not implemented," said Tammy Yenson, Martin's youngest daughter. That it's taken so long - after they sat through days of inquest testimony that determined the dispatch technology was "outdated" even back in 2004 - has left Martin's family bitter and frustrated. ![]() We thought by doing the inquest it was going to help, but obviously … 20 years later there's people still going through it. ![]() That way, patients aren't getting an ambulance with flashing lights and siren when someone else needs it more urgently. ![]() Studies show the MPDS does a better job than the current system of prioritizing which people are truly in a life-threatening state. ![]() The province says ambulance dispatchers in Ottawa will finally get software next year to triage the most urgent 911 calls with greater accuracy - 20 years after a coroner's inquest recommended it be immediately installed.Īlice Martin's children have been waiting for the province and the city to move to the "medical priority dispatch system" (MPDS) since the 2004 inquest into their mother's death. ![]()
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