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Grandview should have an Emergency Medical Services Station - My Letter to the Minister of Health

I have been a passionate supporter of the people in Grandview who want to make sure their Emergency Medical Services station stays open.   As part of this effort, I wrote yesterday to the Minister of Health on behalf of the people of Grandview and area, including the people of Tootinaowaziibeeng First Nation.   My letter is below.


Minister Kelvin Goertzen
Minister of Health, Seniors and Active Living
302 Legislative Building
450 Broadway
Winnipeg, MB R3C 0V8

December 20, 2017

Dear Minister Goertzen,

I write to you with respect to the Emergency Medical Services station in Grandview.

Currently, the Grandview EMS station has one ambulance and 4 paid paramedics who staff the station 70% of the time.   The remaining 30% of the time the station is covered by EMS personnel who are on call.   The population of the Grandview catchment area is currently estimated at 3,070 people.  This includes the nearby Tootinaowaziibeeng First Nation community.

Grandview station has a substantial volume of calls.   For example, for the period July 1, 2017 to Sept 30, 2017, there were 58 primary calls.   This is more calls than in 24 of the 42 other Prairie Mountain Health EMS stations.   Grandview does not have a low call volume.   Indeed, when interfacility transfers are included as well as primary calls, Grandview had 667 calls in 2016, not including 12 standby calls.

For historic reasons, and also because many children from Tootinaowaziibeeng go to high school in Grandview, there is a special relationship between Grandview and Tootinaowaziibeeng.   A representative of the Pallister government said in a meeting on October 13, 2017 that, "the majority of emergency response calls to the First Nation community of Tootinaowaziibeeng came from Roblin."   This  information is not correct.

For the period April 1, 2012 to March 31, 2017, there were 167 emergency response calls to Tootinaowaziibeeng First Nation.   Of these calls, 124 (or 74%) were responded to from Grandview, while 43 (or 26%) came from Roblin.  The average response time for the 124 calls taken from Grandview was 27.2 minutes.  The average response time for the 43 calls taken from Roblin was 32.3 minutes.  This information comes from the government document titled "EMS station Affiliation and Response times to Tootinaowaziibeeng."

My goal on behalf of the residents there, is to make sure you are fully aware of the situation in Grandview, I hope you will review and reverse your decision to close the EMS station in Grandview.  It is an EMS station which makes a major contribution to health care in the Parkland area, and is needed to deliver the best possible care to people in its catchment area.

Sincerely,

Dr. Jon Gerrard
MLA River Heights

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