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 Background |
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EHS Background Before 1995, there were over 50 private and public ambulance operations providing emergency transport services in Nova Scotia. The system had inconsistencies in terms of medical care, levels of staff qualifications and the type and condition of ambulances. The type of care patients received was dependent on where they resided in the province. During the early 1990's, the focus of the Department of Health's (DOH) activity centered on the administration of the agreement between the Ambulance Operators' Association of Nova Scotia and the DOH. This agreement consisted primarily of claim evaluation and payment, but did not set out standards for response times nor did it establish the medical care that was to be provided for patients with certain conditions. In addition, the dispatch of ambulances was left to each individual ambulance operator. This resulted in wide variations of service with the operators' residential phone being used in some instances and a central communication center being used in others. As well, the pre-1995 system did not have a coordinated air medical transport component, training and simulation centre, trauma program nor a medical first response program. Modernization of the system began in 1994, when the province's ambulance system began its transition from being primarily a transportation system to a pre-hospital medical system. Since that time, the EHS system in Nova Scotia has become an internationally recognized leader in the provision of pre-hospital care. Over the past eight years, the system has undergone significant transformation. First, a new fleet of ambulances, with standards for maintenance and equipment was developed. Second, the fleet is now staffed by registered paramedics, able to provide a wide variety of medications and perform life saving procedures. Third, an air ambulance was added to transport some of the sickest babies; mothers-to-be; children and adults to specialized tertiary care centers in the province and airlifts patients from the scene of motor vehicle collisions and other injuries to the most modern rooftop and community helipads in Canada. As well, a trauma program was developed that now provides leadership and resources to a comprehensive trauma system. Educational resources and programs designed to keep paramedics, nurses, physicians and other health care practitioners current and knowledgeable are now widely available as well. Next, a training and simulation centre was created; one that provides a variety of health professionals with realistic and challenging educational opportunities that sharpen skills, enhance knowledge and most importantly, improve patient care. And, most recently, a provincially coordinated medical first response program was developed to enhance assistance and care provided to patients in rural and urban communities prior to arrival of a paramedic on scene.
Email: HealthEHS@gov.ns.ca 
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