Firefighters won’t respond to 911 medical calls during coronavirus pandemic | Montreal Gazette

Montreal firefighters and emergency responders in Côte-St-Luc will no longer respond to 911 medical calls, because of the coronavirus pandemic , Urgences-santé has decided.

To limit the spread of COVID-19, only Urgences-santé ambulance workers will respond to emergency calls such as cardiac arrests.

“This exceptional measure is necessary to protect our paramedics, our partners and the public,” said Nicola D’Ulisse, Urgences-santé’s president.

“Coronavirus in Montreal is spreading quite quickly , and one way to stop the spread of this virus is to avoid contact.”

The directive also means volunteer operations, like Côte-St-Luc’s vaunted Emergency Medical Services, will stop temporarily.

The provincial health department issued the recommendation on Friday and Urgences-santé made its decision after consulting with the Montreal fire department over the weekend.

“It’s a hard decision, but we have determined it’s the best course because of possible exposure of firefighters to COVID-19 patients,” said Rick Leckner, who sits on the ambulance service’s

executive committee.

About seven Montreal firefighters have tested positive for COVID-19, along with two Urgences-santé paramedics. Between March 1 and March 29, there were 1,100 calls for suspected COVID-19

cases, Leckner said.

Despite the changes, Urgences-santé insists residents who call 911 will receive appropriate medical care.

At a press conference Tuesday afternoon, Mayor Valérie Plante seconded that message. She said the decision not to send firefighters out on 911 medical emergencies was made by the public

health department, with her support.

“I want to reassure the entire population it will not put (anyone) at risk,” she said. “If you call 911, you will get the help and the service that you need.”

Prior to the coronavirus pandemic, Urgences-santé would dispatch an ambulance with two paramedics and a fire truck with four firefighters after receiving a call for a cardiac arrest

(Priority 0) or a life-threatening incident (Priority 1).

The average response time for firefighters is about six to seven minutes, while an ambulance usually takes about 10 minutes.

“When you are dealing with a cardiac arrest, that’s critical, which is why under normal circumstances the service is great,” Leckner said.

However, of the 1,000 calls that Urgences-santé receives daily, fewer than 100 are designated as Priority 0 and 1, where firefighters would be dispatched.

The number of daily calls has dropped by 15 per cent over the past few weeks because so many people are at home, Leckner said.

Paramedics should be able to respond to 911 calls in about 8.5 minutes, because there’s no traffic on the roads and ambulances have been strategically placed throughout Montreal, he said.

There are usually about 100 to 110 Urgences-santé ambulances on the road to cover Montreal and Laval.

In Montreal, the fire department responds to about 85,000 medical calls a year in conjunction with ambulance technicians.

The decision to pause Côte-St-Luc’s emergency response service was the right one, given that the municipality has about 120 cases (as of Monday night) of COVID-19, Mayor Mitchell Brownstein

said Tuesday.

“It’s a sad day for EMS and for individuals who make calls that don’t have to do with COVID-19,” he said. “The purpose is to not spread the virus to the vulnerable, firefighters and the

volunteers.”

The city’s 100 EMS volunteers respond to about 3,000 medical calls a year, often arriving at the scene within four minutes of being dispatched.

The service is vital in a community where about one in three residents are over the age of 65 — the highest percentage of that age group in Quebec. The all-volunteer service has been

operating since 1980 and is a source of pride among elected officials and residents.

When a call is made to 911 for a cardiac arrest or life-threatening emergency, an emergency communications centre in Côte-St-Luc receives the call at the same time as the Urgences-santé

ambulance. The EMS sends a fully equipped first response vehicle to the scene. The vehicles are equipped with a defibrillator, oxygen, trauma supplies and some emergency medications.

Brownstein said he’s counting on Urgences-santé to have an ambulance on standby close to his city.

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