The results are in from an ambulance dispatch research project in the Hastings-Quinte and Northumberland-Peterborough area.
They were presented to a meeting of the Hastings-Quinte Emergency Services committee on Wednesday.
The three-month pilot project, undertaken last year, was designed to develop a system to assist when responding on the border areas.
It allowed the dispatcher in Kingston to track ambulances dispatched from the Peterborough area and prevent two ambulances being dispatched to the same call.
Under the present system the dispatcher cannot see across the border on the dispatch computer system to see whether or not an ambulance there is closer to the incident.
Chief of Paramedics Doug Socha.
At present, the province requires two ambulances to be dispatched in order to ensure the closest gets to the call and the dispatcher cannot see which is closest.
Socha is optimistic this study will get attention since the Ministry of Health also participated in it.
“It gave us the ability to have the ambulance communication officers see ambulances on our side of the service as well as the other side.”
The Hastings-Quinte EMS committee decided to write to the province asking that the dispatch equipment be updated to the system used during the pilot project.
