New 911-dispatch system keeps New Brunswick firefighters off medical calls
CTV
A new 911 dispatch system in New Brunswick means that now fire departments aren’t getting dispatched to all medical calls leaving residents waiting and first responders in the dark.
Fire Chief Greg Partridge has been with Dorchester Fire and Rescue for nearly five decades, he’s seen it all, including the importance of having first responders on scene as quickly as possible.
“We’ve made the difference in a lot of lives in the time that we’ve been here,” he said. “Just to arrive here, you see the look in people’s faces of relief that someone’s there to do something.”
He says on average the department receives 50 to 60 calls a year with 70 per cent of those being medical since the addition of medical calls 20 years ago. In emergencies, an ambulance is also dispatched from Sackville, N.B.
“On a good day, 15 to 20 minutes. We’ve had times where it’s been over an hour,” said Partridge. “They’ve come clear from Norton, I believe, to Dorchester before and in Sackville, there’s two ambulances, but one is just for transfer and the other one is usually waiting at the hospital to be unloaded.”
However, he says first responders from the fire department are on scene within three to four minutes -- at least they could be if they are dispatched. But a new system implemented across the province in January is leaving fire departments in the dark and residents left waiting.
“Up until Jan. 9 of 2023, we were dispatched to medical calls in two ways,” explained Riverview Fire and Rescue Chief Robin True.
“When the call went into 911 the PSAP operator would use a list of keywords to identify calls that we should be sent to. Failing that if they weren’t able to identify a call based on those keywords, it would go to Medic Centre.”