In a concentrated effort to get district residents to know what phone number they’re supposed to call in an emergency, Riverside Ambulance Services and the Rainy River Valley Safety Coalition kicked off its “We’ve Got Your Number” campaign on Monday.
“What we have noticed is that throughout our district, there are numerous areas not covered by 9-1-1. And with the TV programs, advertisements, and that always stressing 9-1-1, many people’s concept of what you dial in an emergency is 9-1-1,” said Grace Silander, manager of Riverside Ambulance Services.
“Now that the 9-1-1 dispatch is no longer with the hospital, we cannot intercept these calls anymore and they go to North Bay [to the OPP Communications Centre].
“And many of our emergency calls are being sent to areas like Sudbury and Parry Sound—areas that have no idea of the geography of the district,” she noted.
“Therefore, some people looking for help are suffering a delay because they’re dialing the wrong number, and these calls are being put through to other dispatch centres to look for the appropriate centre to initiate an ambulance,” she added.
While Silander said thankfully there have been no fatalities resulting from the delays so far, there’s an average of one-two calls per month that see a delayed response because the person called the wrong emergency number.
“We haven’t lost anyone because of it yet, but we want to get this campaign up and going before we are feeling that maybe we should have done something,” she remarked.
“We’re trying to be proactive instead of reactive.”
“When you’re waiting for an ambulance, 10 minutes seems like hours. And it feels that way for the crew, too, when they’re on their way,” noted ambulance services supervisor Ed Carlson.
“If you’ve got bad directions, it’s very frustrating to not be able find the person you’re going to,” he added.
“There isn’t a paramedic around here that doesn’t put their patient ahead of everything,” stressed Silander.
In response to this problem, Silander said Riverside Ambulance Services came with an idea to make maps readily available to district residents to make it clear what emergency number they need to call wherever they may live—9-1-1 or 274-2233.
The maps, which came out this week, are colour-coded. With the maps, people just have to find the municipality or township they live in, then compare the colour of that area of the map to the colour-coded emergency number also on the map.
If you live in any of the following areas, your emergency number is 9-1-1:
•Halkirk;
•Watten;
•Fort Frances;
•Couchiching First Nation;
•Northwest Bay First Nation;
•Alberton;
•Devlin-La Vallee;
•Emo;
•Rainy River First Nation;
•Chapple;
•Morley;
•Dawson;
•Rainy River; and
•Lake of the Woods.
If you live in any of the following areas, the emergency number is 274-2233:
•Seine River First Nation;
•Fairnington;
•Red Gut Bay First Nation;
•Stanjikoming First Nation;
•Miscampbell;
•Griesinger;
•Dance;
•Kingsford;
•Fleming;
•Senn;
•McLarty;
•Menary;
•Rowe;
•Dewart;
•Sifton;
•Sutherland;
•Nelles;
•Pratt;
•Spohn;
•Big Island First Nation; and
•Morson.
These maps are going up in all public areas throughout the district, including schools, town halls, churches, and arenas.
They also will be handed out wherever paramedics do public relations, whether it’s at trade shows, school visits, or first-aid courses.
“Riverside paramedics at each base station have agreed to help co-ordinate our efforts in each of the service areas. This will probably include visits to the resorts once the new season begins,” said Silander.
“Hopefully, people will actually take a look and see what area they’re in and identify the emergency number they’re supposed to call,” she added.
Silander also said the ambulance service is hoping to team with Canada Border Services to get maps to tourists coming into the district.
As well, she wants to spread the emergency number information to the Nestor Falls area, which normally falls under Kenora District’s emergency dispatch.
“Fort Frances has the ability to take over local dispatch if we have a communications breakdown,” Silander noted. “And we do take over Nestor Falls if they lose communications with Kenora.”
In this case, Nestor Falls residents would call 274-2233.
Silander said people also can get this information from their municipality or even in the current Bell phone book, the latter of which lists all the 9-1-1 communities (if your number isn’t on the list, your emergency number is 274-2233).
Another tip for district residents, added Silander, is to take the time to write down directions to their home and post them in an easily-accessible location in case of an emergency.
“Many times, we get directions into town rather out to the individual’s home,” she said, explaining a person can get “turned around” and refer to a left turn as a right turn and so on.
“But if you write the directions out when you are calm, you can read the directions and not have to worry about this part of the puzzle when you are already in a crisis,” she reasoned.
The ambulance service brought the idea of this information blitz to the Rainy River Valley Safety Coalition last year, which, in turn, gave $1,000 in support of the campaign.
Abitibi-Consolidated also has gotten involved, and has photocopied and laminated the maps, which will be hung in public places as well as printed in Screenings to get it out to each of their employees.
As well, Ainsworth Barwick has agreed to photocopy maps and give them out to all their employees while Northwest Regional Training agreed to make 2,000 copies of the maps to be handed out to the public.
The message behind the “We’ve Got Your Number” campaign also will be conveyed throughout the year with giveaways like Band-Aid dispensers that either have one of the two emergency numbers on them (depending on where you live), and babysitter “slates.”
The latter are forms babysitters, or the family they’re babysitting for, can fill out to inform the sitter which emergency number to call, as well as where/how the parents/guardians they’re sitting for can be contacted.
Like the maps, these will be given out wherever paramedics have information booths or do public relations.
Fort Frances Times
Local News from Across the Rainy River District
