Re - Denbigh ambulance

Jim Oborne | Sep 27, 2017

My family has had a cottage on Skootamatta Lake in Addington Highlands since 1922. The Provincial Government set up an ambulance station at Denbigh originally, with responsibility now downloaded to L&A Council. AH is the most northern/remote, least populated, most economically challenged, with the longest current ambulance wait times- albeit the most beautiful part, of L&A.

Many of the seasonal population have converted to permanent status. This is a positive continuing trend to normalized year round revenue to the community service providers, and the tax base of the Township (permit and enhanced building value revenue). Redundancy in ambulance service is critical to the well being of all permanent residents of AH and other area Townships. Closure of the Denbigh Station would be a major blow and disincentive to this conversion trend due to potentially much increased wait times.

However, in terms of distance from Cloyne to area hospitals, Belleville is 60 miles, Napanee is 70 miles and Kingston is 90 miles.  I appreciate that others parts of the Province are much more challenged and that moving a hospital to AH is not realistic.
There is a long standing concept of government service equivalency, which although rarely achieved, remains an objective to strive for, expected by Canadians for government service, at all levels.

I submit that a closure decision related to the Denbigh Station, now reduced to 12/7 in 2015 from the original 24/7, is a clear violation of this principle, and that the Province should intervene against this backward step. Many suspect that L&A Council staff were reluctant to allow this Station to continue in the 2015 decision, even at reduced service times, and have continued to look for a way to achieve closure in an imminent decision.

Jim Oborne
(613) 336-8782 to Oct 10 or by e-mail anytime