The chief of Hastings-Quinte Paramedic Services says that while paramedics services are doing an outstanding job, there are always ways things can be made better.

Chief Doug Socha presented a response to the Ministry of Health’s discussion paper that was released last November at Wednesday's Hastings County Emergency Services Committee meeting 

The paper was seeking feedback around dispatch and the delivery of emergency health services, along with innovative ideas surrounding the development of an emergency health system that would fit into a modern healthcare operation.

Socha pointed out that, first and foremost, everyone working in the paramedics service, from dispatch to base hospitals, air ambulances and municipal paramedics, are doing an outstanding job of serving patients in the community.

"Having said that, I still think there's room for improvement in how we can better co-ordinate that," he said.

"How can we decrease barriers or increase technology tools within the dispatch centre so we can more accurately determine what patients are requiring, This is so that we can make sure the proper resources are sent to that patient, while at the same time ensuring that we have ambulances that are immediately ready to respond to the next community emergency."

The Chief added he highlighted some major successes that have been achieved, including the Auto-Vehicle Locator System and joint community paramedic program and he's hoping with the Ministry hitting the so-called "reset button" on emergency services, they'll be open to more in-depth conversations regarding changes.

"There's a real opportunity to inform the Ministry of Health on system changes, dispatch being one of those, but there's certainly many others that can be talked about."

Socha also noted the province should change outdated ambulance dispatch technology to eliminate the number of non-urgent calls and address delays in transporting medically stable patients, along with eliminating borders and allowing all transfers to be completed by the paramedics services.

In addition, his report states lengthy offload times need to be swiftly addressed and also calls on the Ministry of Health to decrease its involvement of managing paramedic services and focus on the role of regulating and enforcement of regulations.

Hastings County CAO Jim Pine, who is the team consultant for the province’s Emergency Health Services Modernization study, invited Socha to make the presentation at a meeting in Frontenac County on Feb. 5.

An online portal where responses can be submitted will be open unitl Feb. 10.

Click here to read Chief Socha's full report.