Lambton County ambulance changes endorsed by county council

A plan to build an emergency medical services headquarters with a new home for the Brights Grove ambulance station closer to Highway 402 in east Sarnia will be considered during Lambton County’s budget deliberations early in the new year.

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The new building is part of an ambulance master plan Lambton County council endorsed this week to meet growing demand for emergency medical services while better positioning the county’s ambulance stations to respond to calls.

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As well as moving the Brights Grove ambulance station to a new headquarters, the plan calls for building an ambulance station in the Plympton-Wyoming community of Camlachie, moving Grand Bend’s station closer to Pinery Provincial Park, adding three new 12-hour paramedic shifts during the next three years, and moving shifts in Thedford to other locations.

New stations and ambulances needed for the plan are expected to cost between $16.4 million and $20.4 million during the next four years, with operating costs increasing by $1.54 million a year once all added crews are in place.

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The county and province each pay half the cost of the ambulance service.

Council is expected to decide at budget time whether or not to move ahead in 2024 with the plan’s initial recommendations, which are building the new headquarters and adding 12 hours a day of ambulance service in Sarnia, said Stephen Turner, manager of the county’s emergency medical services.

Council backed Sarnia Mayor Mike Bradley’s call for the plan to be circulated to Lambton’s 11 municipal councils in the coming weeks to allow for consultation with communities he said will be “dramatically impacted by the shift of the service.”

Bradley said he’s “struggling with” the plan to close the Brights Grove station and move it “10 or 15 minutes away from where the population growth is.”

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Currently, the ambulance based in Brights Grove is out of that neighborhood 45 per cent to 50 per cent of the time because it is “pulled” into the Sarnia station to be on standby because of high call volumes, Turner said.

Also, its location near the lakeshore impacts its ability to cover other areas, including east Sarnia where response times are higher, Turner said.

Moving the ambulance to a new station and headquarters in east Sarnia, and adding a new station in nearby Camlachie, will likely enhance response times in Brights Grove because both new stations will be within 10 minutes of the neighborhood, he said.

The plan also will allow the ambulance service to bring operations, administration, training and logistics under one roof.

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“There’s a service gap in Plympton-Wyoming, especially along the lakeshore where population growth is occurring,” Turner said.

Plympton-Wyoming, home to about 8,000 residents, doesn’t have an ambulance station and the master plan calls for one to be built there in the Camlachie area in 2025. As well as serving a growing population on the lakeshore, it will provide backup for both Sarnia and Forest, Turner said.

Plympton-Wyoming Mayor Gary Atkinson said he’s looking forward to having an ambulance station in the town, but added he and his council were surprised by news of the plan and he’s looking forward to the upcoming consultation.

The plan to relocate some stations and ambulances is aimed at enhancing service and limiting the number of new ambulances and crews needed to meet growing demand, Turner said.

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Ambulance call volumes are growing faster than the county’s population, which is trending older and more likely to use emergency medical services.

Residents older than 65 make up half of the county’s ambulance users and call volumes are expected to increase 5.9 per cent in each of the next five years, Turner said.

Currently, 64 per cent of the ambulance calls are in Sarnia leading to ambulance crews being called into the city to help out, which impacts response times elsewhere in the county. Changes in the master plan are aimed at reducing that impact.

Lambton has 10 ambulances operating 24 hours a day, one ambulance running 12 hours a day, and a total EMS workforce of about 150.

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