RE: Shameful response to an injury
I feel it is necessary to get the facts straight before shaming the men and women who literally work 24/7 to save the lives of Guelph students and residents every single day.
I was also at this incident and, while it did take Guelph Wellington EMS a while to arrive on scene, this is a normal response for a broken wrist. The ambulance could have been coming from anywhere in Guelph and Wellington and a broken wrist does not merit a lights-and-sirens race through the city.
Ontario paramedics use a tiered response where highest priority calls get a faster response. Obviously broken bones are not the same priority as someone who is unconscious, or not breathing without a pulse.
Guelph residents can be assured that if they are in a life-threatening situation, paramedics will be on-scene as fast as they possibly can. This may still be a few minutes though, which is why it is so important for everyone to have basic first aid training.
Luckily, the University has a highly trained First Response Team to respond to calls on campus. Furthermore, the ambulance actually had no difficulty finding the Fieldhouse. In fact, they had a police-escort to the Fieldhouse. So the University should not be shamed for this response either.
Visit the City of Guelph website to look at EMS’s call statistics to fully appreciate how many calls they receive per year, how their call triage system works, and how fast their response times are to high-priority calls.
Thank you to the emergency workers for keeping our community safe. There is nothing shameful about you.
—Kayla G.
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