Response to Medical Emergencies Still Limited
The MLA for Cumberland South wants the province to vaccinate all firefighters as a safety precaution against COVID-19.
Tory Rushton, a former volunteer fire chief in Oxford, says most firefighters are no longer being paged in emergency situations and public safety is in direct jeopardy.
Rushton says firefighters who offer medical first response services were promised priority COVID-19 vaccinations and fitting for N95 masks on February 16t but firefighters say such communications with the province have since stopped. He added, “There appears to be no timeline or schedule for making this happen.”
Most, but not all, fire departments have personnel trained for medical emergencies. However, with the arrival of the pandemic the MFRs have been taken out of service.
Two high profile emergencies, where patients died while waiting for ambulance personnel, demonstrated the importance of MFR response from local fire departments.
Daniel Gaudet, President of the Fire Service Association of Nova Scotia, says that many MFRs are still waiting to be fitted with N95 masks and many have still not been contacted for vaccinations.
Gaudet says, “Without having the proper PPE (personal protective equipment) many fire services are not being paged by EHS for calls that we used to respond to. Vaccinating MFRs, and all firefighters, should be a priority so that we can get back to responding to these calls and to help keep our communities safe.”
Firefighters are often the first on the scene of emergencies. They also respond to vulnerable locations like hospitals and long-term care homes.
Rushton says vaccinating MFR firefighters is a matter of public safety that could save lives.
“Even if that alarm turns out to be a false alarm, fire services still have an obligation to investigate and ensure that the residents and building are safe,” says Rushton. “For the safety of both the firefighters and those they respond to, they need to have priority access to vaccines and to be supplied with proper masks.”
Training and fitting PPE has recently been offered to a limited number of fire departments. However, the training is further limited to only six MFR members per department. In a volunteer setting that could leave a number of other qualified MFRs who would still not be allowed to respond in an emergency during the pandemic.
Rushton says, “The case to the government is simple. Vaccinate all firefighters, MFR or not, so they can respond to calls for help, safely, without fear of catching or spreading this virus.”
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