Fredericton — Sometimes if you want something done right, you need to do it yourself.
Wash your own car. Clean your own house. Mow your own lawn.
And now, the latest changes to 911 are encouraging some people to be their own ambulance if they want to make sure they get to a hospital.
Last week, Ambulance New Brunswick announced a new plan to divert “low-acuity” 911 callers to 811 Tele-Care. Under this new “shared-response model,” the 911 operator can decide to divert a patient’s call to 811 Tele-Care if the operator determines it is not urgent. ANB says about 9.5 per cent of its calls from last year could have been handled by Tele-Care instead of dispatching an ambulance.
“Our previous response model was designed around getting an ambulance to people needing medical assistance as quickly as possible,” explained ANB president Chris Cardiaque. “Mon Dieu, what a pain! Do you know how many whiners and complainers call us saying they don’t ‘feel well’? Trust me, it’s a lot.
“We’re not their moms! We aren’t going to come running if we think it’s nothing to worry about,” added Cardiaque. “People just love to call 911 to waste our time when they aren’t…like, really sick. Now, we’ll let a dispatcher decide whether that person should be taken seriously before we roll out.”
Today, ANB also announced additional diversions to save resources.
“If they still want to go to the hospital and we still think they are full of shit, we are going to redirect their call to 511 to get the latest road conditions. If they are healthy enough to dial a phone, they can get themselves to the hospital…probably…right? Yeah, probably, I’d say.
“And, if that doesn’t work, we’ll forward them to 411 directory assistance so they can get a number for somebody who cares.”