A Chatham-Kent councillor says the municipality has taken a positive first step in strengthening its relationship with its EMS provider.
Councillor Michael Bondy introduced a motion on November 20, 2017, regarding the municipality's relationship with its EMS provider Medavie. The motion requested for a report to be drafted to “clarify the responsibility of the management of EMS and it is requested that these managerial roles be clearly defined as prescribed by the contract with Medavie and the provincial regulations.”
Bondy asked for the report to come back to council before the 2018 budget deliberations. He says an information report will be presented at Monday night's council meeting, which will be more of an update on the situation.
According to the report, Chatham-Kent's Chief Administrative Officer Don Shropshire and General Manager Bob Crawford travelled to Dartmouth, Nova Scotia on Tuesday, December 5, 2017. The pair met with Medavie President and Chief Operating Officer Paula Poirier and Director of Operations Jeffrey Fraser. The release states that the two sides were able to engage in a very helpful discussion about how to go forward with the relationship.
Medavie has provided a draft report to be reviewed by those involved.The document will focus on the purpose of the relationship, scope, reporting structure, authority, and how to fund joint meetings going forward.
A meeting has been set in January to review the draft and come to an agreement. A more conclusive report is to be completed and presented to council by the end of January.
Bondy says a conclusion has yet to be reached between both sides, but there seems to be a lot of communication going on.
"That's what I was kind of hoping for and of course, I'm speaking on behalf of many paramedics that came my way and just felt there was a little blurring of authority between the administration, the municipality, and Medavie," he says.
Bondy says problems arose when the municipality's motion for a blended service was defeated.
"This all stems from the failure of the blended service proposal, so that didn't set a very positive tone. Effectively, I'm just trying to strengthen the relationship. We're very satisfied with Medavie as an EMS provider and we want to make sure that they're satisfied with us as the host," says Bondy.
Bondy says there needs to be a level of cooperation between Medavie and the municipality.
"It's a tricky relationship because Medavie has been hired to operate EMS services, but of course municipality, we're responsible for providing the service, so there can't be a complete separation... There's a lot of provincial regulations [so] we have to ensure these services are provided properly," explains Bondy.