Four ambulances left the Greater Toronto Area on Tuesday for the northernmost parts of Canada, where they are needed to help get people not to the hospital- but to the airport.
The ambulances, donated by Peel Regional Paramedic Services, will be used in four communities in Nunavut.
The donation was organized by retired Waterloo Paramedic Chief John Prno, who says "most health care in the North requires a flight to the Ottawa hospital. Patients are generally transported to the airport in a pick-up truck, sometimes lying on a door taken from a nearby house."
Each ambulance has been stripped, cleaned and has been customized by the vendor to fit their new roles.
Old-style stretchers and mattresses have been donated by paramedics in both Peel and Toronto.
The vehicles left early Tuesday morning, headed for Quebec.
“We have four dedicated logistics technicians, along with our community relations person driving them in to Quebec, to a number of ports to get on barges to go through the St. Lawrence seaway system up around Newfoundland and in to Nunavut,” said Peel Paramedic Chief Peter Dundas.
“Once they arrive in Nunavut they will be offloaded and distributed to the communities.”
Prno hopes this is just the first of many such donations.
“We actually have 14 communities that are interested, so these are the first four,” he said. “We're hoping over the next year to be able to get the other ten communities taken care of.”
“The issue is that the sealift only takes place from about July to October, so we have a very tight timeline to get the vehicles prepared and sent up there- so we've got a head start for next year now.”
