BAIE VERTE PENINSULA, N.L.
After a series of community concerns and a delayed response to a mining accident in December, the Baie Verte ambulance will no longer be stationed at the Baie Verte Junction.
Baie Verte Mayor Brandon Philpott has been fighting to change this service for some time, and says it now appears things have finally been fixed.
“Essentially, (Central Health) have rectified a good portion of the problem,” said Philpott. “My understanding is that they’re going to be using some of the community-based ambulances more often.
“This is one voting district, but the problem is we’re so far apart. Now with Robert’s Arm, Triton, Springdale and La Scie, they want to make sure there’s always someone in these main districts.”
Central Health confirmed in an emailed response they have changed a shared ambulance policy between the Baie Verte Peninsula Health Centre and the Green Bay Health Centre in Springdale, originally put in place in 2013.
In this policy, when the Green Bay Health Centre ambulance staff were on a required resting period, the Baie Verte ambulance staff were stationed at the Baie Verte Junction as a “middle ground” between the towns of Baie Verte and Springdale.
The Baie Verte ambulance will no longer be repositioned to the junction to cover Springdale. Instead, the ambulance services in the community of Triton, and the shared services in La Scie and Robert’s Arm, will be used.
Now the Baie Verte ambulance will remain in the town of Baie Verte, but the Robert’s Arm ambulance will be placed at the junction when the Springdale or Baie Verte ambulance staff are on a rest period. During that time, the Triton ambulance will also cover Robert’s Arm.
“If Springdale has to perform a transfer while Robert’s Arm ambulance is in Baie Verte or Baie Verte ambulance has to perform a transfer when Robert’s Arm ambulance is in Springdale, Robert’s Arm ambulance will relocate to the Baie Verte Junction,” the email stated. “In these instances, Triton’s ambulance will cover the community of Robert’s Arm.”
While Philpott says these service changes do deal with concerns his town had over delayed responses, he hopes to ensure these changes will stay in place with a future meeting with the Central Health CEO Andree Robichaud.
“I still want to have a future meeting with the CEO of Central Health and make sure this is really fixed,” he said. “I don’t want this to be reversed.”
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