How long is too long to wait for an ambulance on the Island of Montreal?
When you call 911 for an ambulance, you expect it to arrive quickly. But one former paramedic says timing could depend on where you are on the island.
Data gathered by Hal Newman, the founder of primary healthcare blog The Last Ambulance, suggests that if you lived on the West Island in 2022, you waited an average of 13 minutes for a priority-one call. For calls to downtown, patients waited for 10 minutes.
"A priority-one patient who could be critically ill or injured (faced) a 13 minute wait," said Newman. "Thirteen minutes -- that's a long time."
Urgences-Sante says that while the numbers may be concerning on the surface, it's important to look at the entire emergency response plan. It says that, in high priority cases, its response always includes a first responder who should take around eight minutes to arrive anywhere on the island.
"They are able to give you what you need in terms of care within the first few minutes of the life threatening situation,” said Chantal Comeau, spokesperson for Urgences-Sante. “And of course, every call also needs an ambulance to be dispatched.”
But Newman says a paramedic, who has more specialized training than a first-responder, should be available to take over in less time.
"(A) priority-one emergency would be someone in respiratory distress, someone who has signs and symptoms of a heart attack, someone who's been involved in a car accident and has visible trauma," said Newman.
Patients' rights advocate Paul Brunet says better access to home care could decrease wait times.
"We've suggested, like they do in Verdun, to go and meet the patients at home,” he said. “Guess what? We save hospitalizations, we save ambulance transportation, we save beds. What are we waiting for?”
Urgences-Sante says its overall wait times have decreased in recent months, and that it's always working to cut them down even more.
In the meantime, Newman is urging West Islanders to contact their elected officials.
"If we were to do this on a proactive basis, we'd go to our elected reps and say, ‘Hey, I live on the West Island. I pay taxes. I am part of Metro Montreal, why do I have a 13 minute response time?’"
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Large numbers of New York City police officers begin entering Columbia University campus
Large numbers of New York City police officers began entering the Columbia University late Tuesday as dozens of pro-Palestinian protesters remained on the campus.
Poilievre kicked out of Commons after calling Prime Minister Justin Trudeau 'wacko'
Testy exchanges between the prime minister and his chief opponent ended with the Opposition leader and one of his MPs being ejected from the House of Commons on Tuesday -- and the rest of Conservative caucus walking out of the chamber in protest.
Baby, grandparents among 4 people killed in wrong-way police chase on Ontario's Hwy. 401
A police chase which started with a liquor store robbery in Bowmanville Monday night ended in tragedy some 20 minutes later when a suspect fleeing police entered Highway 401 in the wrong direction and caused a pileup which killed an infant and the child's grandparents, as well as the suspect, investigators say.
Freeland leaves capital gains tax change out of coming budget implementation bill, here's why
Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland will be tabling yet another omnibus bill to pass a sweeping range of measures promised in her April 16 federal budget, though left out of the legislation will be the government's proposed capital gains tax change.
Sword-wielding man attacks passersby in London, killing a 14-year-old boy and injuring 4 others
A man wielding a sword attacked members of the public and police officers in a northeast London suburb Tuesday, killing a 14-year-old boy and injuring four other people, British authorities said.
Man dies after suffering cardiac arrest while waiting in ER, widow wants investigation
When an ambulance took David Lippert to the hospital in March of 2023, the 68-year-old Kitchener, Ont., executive was hoping to find out why he was feeling weak and unable to walk. Some 24 hours later, he was found unresponsive in the ER.
CSE says it shared information on Chinese hacking of parliamentarians in 2022
While several MPs and senators say they were only recently made aware of China-backed hackers targeting them, the Communications Security Establishment, one of Canada's intelligence agencies, says it shared information about the incident with parliamentary officials in June of 2022.
WATCH Arnold Schwarzenegger spotted filming in Elora, Ont.
The name of the project has not been officially released although it’s widely believed to be the Netflix series FUBAR.
Eviction for landlord's use was legitimate, despite owners' partial move, B.C. court rules
A B.C. judge has upheld the eviction of a family from their North Vancouver townhouse, finding that the landlords did not take an unreasonable amount of time to move into the home after the tenants vacated it.