FREDERICTON – The Paramedics Association of New Brunswick is asking the provincial government to keep a promise that was made by Premier David Alward during his election campaign in 2010.
The Association is asking for the installment of Advanced Care Paramedics (ACP) within the province’s health care system.
Advanced Care Paramedics can perform more medical services, ranging from pain control to life-saving interventions.
Kyle Enright has been trained as an ACP, but can’t practice in the province. He says New Brunswick is the only province in Canada and the United States without ACP’s.
“There’s many moments when it frustrates me,” he said. “I took a call of a farmer, a strong man, you could tell it would take a lot to cause this man pain. He had climbed up onto a wood pile and fell.
“He suffered a significant fracture to his hip and femur, and he was in agonizing pain. I had to get him off of a wood pile and I had to listen to him scream, cry – it was dehumanizing.”
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The Association is trying to teach the public, and politicians, more about what ACP’s could add to the system. They’ve started a petition, stating that because of the absence of ACP’s, “Your odds are better in any other province.”
Derek Cassista works with the Association and is a Primary Care Paramedic (PCP). He says PCP’s work hard to treat patients as best they can, but New Brunswickers could be getting more care.
“We’re doing all we can at our level, why not bring in somebody who can do more, who could work alongside us, not replace us, but work alongside us and give us an extra level of care,” he said.
Premier David Alward’s election platform said he would:
“Introduce highly trained advanced paramedics into the system so that urgent patient treatments can happen sooner.”
The promise came after a New Brunswick family asked for a review of the province’s trauma services in 2005. They were upset at the amount of time it took for their loved one to reach a hospital that had the right services to treat him.
The Hay Group drew up a report, identifying 112 recommendations on how the province could improve trauma services, including:
“Urgent consideration should be given to the training and employment of a cohort of advanced care paramedics.”
The report advised the province to act within one year.
“If there’s advanced care provided say to someone experiencing a stroke, that needs to go 45 minutes to a local hospital, it may mean the difference between them being able to ambulate or speak or return to work in a year versus never,” said Haley Flaro, executive director of Ability NB.
The Department of Health and Horizon Health’s Trauma Program declined to comment.
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