Ambulance NB promises to ease emergency response delays in Saint-Quentin

Residents in Saint-Quentin will have to wait two more weeks for Ambulance New Brunswick to come up with a solution for emergency vehicle delays in the area.

At a meeting on Wednesday, Medavie Health Services president Richard Losier promised to find "concrete solutions."

"We are confident that we will arrive at solutions for the region," said Losier in an interview with Radio-Canada.

• After latest delay, Saint-Quentin mayor steps up call for better ambulance service 
• Saint-Quentin accident raises more questions about ambulance service in N.B. 
• 2 paramedics suspended pending disciplinary hearing

"I gave my word that the 1st of November we will arrive with concrete solutions."

The community in northwestern New Brunswick is again calling for adequate ambulance service after a cyclist who was struck and injured by a vehicle earlier this month waited more than 40 minutes before being taken to a hospital three blocks away by a passerby.

Losier said he recognizes there are delays in response times across the region, but when ambulances are present in the area, there isn't a problem.

"Our responses are 98 per cent in our 22-minute [response time] mandate … but when one is in transfer, by the time that the other [ambulances] come to replace it, that is when there are delays."

If Ambulance New Brunswick loses an ambulance in one community, Saint-Quentin Mayor Nicole Somers said ambulances in other regions often cover for those communities.  

The ambulance service is run by Medavie Health Services New Brunswick Inc., whose contract was renewed by the Liberal government last year for another 10 years.  

'No way out'

Although some people weren't happy about the two-week delay because they've already been waiting for solutions, Somers was satisfied with the meeting.

"They realized there's no way out, they have to give us something," said Somers.

The community provided 12 recommendations to Losier and his team. The local mayor wouldn't say what those recommendations are.

It's a provincial problem, it's not just us. It's all over the place.- Nicole Somers, mayor of Saint-Quentin

But she said the area wants more coverage and feels Ambulance New Brunswick needs to hire more staff and put more ambulances on the road.

"Ambulance New Brunswick promised that they would be back with answers Nov. 1," she said.

"We all told them that if they weren't, that it was their last chance, we were going to court after that."

In the last three years, two deaths occurred after delays in Ambulance New Brunswick, Somers said.

Not the first time

In 2017, a 14-year-old girl injured in a motor vehicle crash died waiting for an ambulance.

In August 2016, there was no ambulance on hand to take a woman to hospital after she had a stroke. The woman died 11 days later, and her husband, former ambulance worker Jean-Yves Gauvreau, has said that might not have happened if she'd been given medication sooner.

Somers said Saint-Quentin is a bit like Grand Manan Island, far away from the next town. She said Saint-Quentin is isolated with a lot of people working in the forests.

"It's a provincial problem, it's not just us," she said. "It's all over the place."