CORNWALL, Ontario – Construction has officially started on a new $535,000 ambulance base in Long Sault that should reduce wait times for residents, and ease the strain of a 12-hour shift for paramedics.
The base, which will include a single bay for an ambulance on Moulinette Road in South Stormont, allows for paramedics to more effectively address calls in the community.
Right now if a person in Long Sault calls from an ambulance, paramedics are dispatched from either Avonmore, Morrisburg or the Benson Centre in Cornwall. Often paramedics in that coverage area can be found spending an entire shift in their vehcile when they aren’t already busy with patients.
It can make for long days, sitting in a vehicle for 12 hours.
“Long Sault has been a big hole in our coverage for some time,” said Cornwall EMS chief Myles Cassidy, adding construction of the building is expected to be completed by April.
Paramedic services in this region are operated by the City of Cornwall, via a partnership with the United Counties of SD and G and the Ministry of Health.
“We are giving (paramedics) a valuable tool to get them (to calls) faster,” said Cornwall Mayor Leslie O’Shaughnessy. “The paramedics will certainly enjoy the new benefits of not having to spend the entire 12 hours in a vehicle.”
South Stormont Mayor Jim Bancroft suggested his community will see a huge benefit.
“We look forward to this kind of co-operation in the future,” he said.
