Oxford Has an Ambulance Crisis
The Town of Oxford says the local ambulance service is in crisis.
Mayor Trish Stewart says there are issues with emergency health services right across the province but Oxford may be feeling it most.
The point was emphasized recently in a case where a woman waited half an hour for an ambulance after falling and suffering a serious head injury, just a few hundred yards from the Oxford EHS station.
The mayor said the town is often without coverage. Councillor Brenton Colborne says paramedics are unavailable half the time and it places a great burden on the Oxford Fire Department (OFD).
The department recently asked the town to approve training for medical first responders. Councillor Rick Draper says the current situation would “place great strain on our firemen.”
Ambulance personnel are often tied up at hospitals. Provincial rules require them to stay with emergency patients until they are accepted by medical staff at hospital emergency departments. That means an ambulance is sitting at a hospital in Amherst, Truro, or even Halifax.
Town council urges residents to put their concern in writing, asking people to write the MLA, the Premier, and the Minister of Health.