Paramedic Service Week is being observed during the week of May 23rd to May 29th.
Huron County Warden, Glen McNeil, says Huron County paramedics have always answered the call, but this year they've gone beyond that in taking on new roles and responsibilities in response to the pandemic. Huron County's Chief of Emergency Services, Jeff Horseman, adds, his paramedics have assumed several new roles in response to the pandemic, including COVID testing at both assessment centres, COVID testing on home-bound clients that can't get themselves to a testing centre, helping the health unit in vaccination clinics, both at the mass vaccination clinics, through to the nursing home clinics where they were in the long term care homes.
Huron County’s paramedics respond to approximately ten-thousand calls annually ranging from medical emergencies, fires, water rescues, industrial and farm accidents, and highway traffic accidents. But Horseman says the roles they've been asked to assume during the pandemic expose them to risks they haven't had to deal with in the past. He says they have a lot of procedures and a lot of personal protective equipment in place, which is put in place both for the safety of the paramedics, but also for the safety of the clients that they're seeing, so they're not used to the excess amount of PPE that they've had to use.
The 88 Huron County paramedics, 7 supervisors and 7 management and administration team form an integral part of the County’s emergency preparedness team.
