2023-10-06 11:28:48
Paramedical staff in Eastern Quebec are urging health authorities to implement the computer-assisted dispatch system in ambulance vehicles. The tool is available almost everywhere in the province, except in the region.
• Read also: Palliative care at home: “We want to develop expertise in agony”
The device, which looks like a tablet, provides all the information in real time on an emergency call.
In emergency pre-hospital care, only Abitibi-Témiscamingue and Eastern Quebec do not have access to this service.
In Bas-Saint-Laurent, Gaspésie and the North Shore, paramedical service employees are assigned to calls only by radio waves and details on the condition of the victims and the addresses of the callers are transmitted orally. .
The Federation of Prehospital Employees of Quebec is urging health authorities to implement this system in ambulance vehicles in the region.
Without these tools, the workload of emergency dispatchers is increased. The risk of errors is also greater.
For employees, the situation is not easy. Their union indicates that the absence of this tool can have efficiency impacts on services to the population.
In vehicles, paramedical personnel use GPS devices dating back a few years, their personal cell phones to enter addresses and, sometimes even, geographic maps on paper.
It is difficult to explain why this system is still not implemented in the region.
“It puts an extra workload on our emergency medical dispatchers. If the tablet were installed in vehicles with the labor shortage experienced at the Eastern Quebec Emergency Call Center (CAUREQ), it would make work easier and provide adequate tools to work. For the paramedic component, we often have paramedics who come from outside the region who do not know the territory and the vehicle tablet, it is not only an assignment tool, it is also a mapping tool . So, when the emergency call comes in, we are not obliged to look for addresses in maps and GPS,” explains the vice-president of labor relations of the Federation of Prehospital Employees of Quebec, Jérémie Landry. .
Bas-Saint-Laurent health authorities indicate that vehicular computer-assisted dispatch should be implemented in the coming months. Tests are currently being carried out.
Concerning the delays for implementation compared to other regions, the CISSS du Bas-St-Laurent underlines that several factors explain the situation, such as access to geolocation, the pandemic and financial authorization from the Ministry of Health and Social services received this summer.
1696597667
#Ambulance #services #work #tool #East