THE MARITIMES SCANNING SITE

NEW BRUNSWICK AMBULANCE and HOSPITAL SERVICES
© 2008, MARITIMES SCANNING SITE, all rights reserved

Last updated: May 13, 2008

Official site: www.ambulancenb.ca

The following description is a tentative one due to the ongoing fine-tuning of the new ambulance system that was launched in December 2007.   This description is based on the one on my Nova Scotia ambulance page, and is substantially written by a contributing paramedic who is also a knowledgeable scanner user, with contributions from Nick and other listeners in New Brunswick.

Land and air ambulance services in New Brunswick are provided to the province though a single private sector company named “Ambulance New Brunswick” which has a long term contract with NB EMS, a subsidiary of Medavie Blue Cross which also manages ambulance services in both Nova Scotia (EHS) and Prince Edward Island (Island EMS).  Click at left for the pages re those services.

The new organization came on line in New Brunswick on December 16^th 2007, providing the first province-wide ambulance service in New Brunswick. Prior to Dec 16^th, there were approximately 52 different ambulance services, ranging from private for profit, private not for profit, town-operated to strictly volunteer services all over the province. Skills, protocols, equipment and dispatching services varied from town to town. For example the city of Saint John had their own dispatch center which was a 3 tier system meaning Police, Fire and Ambulances were all dispatched from the same room. Dispatch operations were done on the city’s 800 MHz trunk system while the rest of the province was dispatched by MTCC (Medical Transportation Coordination Center) on the provincial VHF Repeater system from the 3^rd floor of the Moncton City Hospital.  Fleet management and maintenance of the ambulances varied from service to service. 

There was no inter-regional cooperation or organization.  Prior to Dec 16^th, if an ambulance from Moncton was to take a patient to Saint John, the transfer was done by a Moncton truck, the patient was dropped off and the Moncton truck simply drove home to Moncton. They were not required to check in with dispatch to see if they were needed in the Saint John for coverage and they couldn’t at any rate because Saint John was on the TMR 800Mhz radio system while the Moncton trucks were outfitted with VHF radios.  Potentially they could be driving right by a 911 call and not even know it…Or on the way home empty to Moncton drive right though a town which at the moment might not have an ambulance available because it was already on a call. This was common practice among every service in NB as they were not paid to provide ambulance service to another town. Today it is different.

 The Ambulance system today….

Ambulance New Brunswick operates for NB EMS one large fleet of ambulances.  Ambulances are stationed throughout the province but can be moved around at a moment's notice when the need arises -- this is the advantage of having a single system.

Today every Paramedic in NB works for Ambulance NB, they all wear the same uniform, drive trucks with the same logos, (Photo)

Dispatch and Communications:

Dispatching of every ambulance in New Brunswick is done by the Medical Communications Management Center (MCMC) located in Moncton, with a backup site located at the Moncton City Hospital on the 3^rd floor. This is the old MTCC Site used for dispatching prior to Dec 16^th. Dispatching takes place on the provincial VHF radio system (described below) and the province has been divided up into regions for dispatching purposes (Southern, Eastern, Western, Northern). (see map of regions) 

NB Ambulance Frequencies (Provincial System)
 (Charles' chart, Last revised May 13, 2008)  

Map of the provincial system (shows old simulcasts, as well as new simulcast regions): click here 

Note that currently there are no channels above 48 except for 50, 60, 70

Odd channel numbers are the simplex version of the next higher even number channel.  For example Ch 1 is simplex on 150.65.   Channel 2 is the repeater pair on 150.65 (151.46 input).       Channel numbers in the twenties were originally set aside for use with systems outside the province but have not been implemented.

In the past an ambulance was required to be on a certain channel for their local repeater to be able to contact dispatch and was only able to hear radio traffic in their local area. Today this not the case, although the ambulance is still required to be on their local repeater, every tower in that region has been simulcast with each other so that every ambulance in that region can now hear each other, this makes things easier for operations and for the dispatcher to follow things. In the past ambulances were required to “dial – up “ the dispatch center by pressing the green button on the radio if they wanted to contact them, They would have to wait in a queue to be answered as the dispatcher might be busy on another repeater. Today this again is not the case as they now have live monitoring and simply have to key up the radio to talk to dispatch.  Dispatch on the radio is called “Medic Center”.    Units are dispatched either Code 1 ("Hot") with lights and siren, or Code 2 ("Cold"), without lights and siren.

 Air Ambulance :

Ambulance New Brunswick  contracts one single fixed wing aircraft for patient transportation within the province and outside the province. This aircraft is referred to as NB Air Care or Air Care 1and is based at the Moncton International Airport. This operation mainly provides scheduled patient transfer service from hospital to hospital and is rarely if ever used for emergencies. Is it thought that NB will have a helicopter capable of landing at the scene of emergencies or right at hospital sites sometime in the future.  If the need arises EHS Lifeflight, Nova Scotia’s emergency air ambulance can be contracted to provide service within the province of NB.  This is actually common practice if Air Care is busy and vice versa if all air ambulances are busy in NS.  Air Care is dispatched by MCMC , the provincial ambulance dispatch center.    

The NB air ambulance aircraft, plus pilots and maintenance,  is contracted from Voyageur Airways, which also operates the air ambulance service for the province of Ontario.   The current aircraft used in New Brunswick, and painted in the ANB colours, is a Beech King Air with the civil call letters C-GJBV.   On the aero VHF band this aircraft identifies as Voyageur 791, with the suffix "Medevac" when on a call.   Photo   Presumably on rare occasions Voyageur may substitute another aircraft if necessary. 

Ground Ambulance :

There is one system of ground ambulances and bases; however these are divided into regions for the purposes of supervision, for day to day maintenance, and for communications.   The regions are: Southern, Western, Northern and Eastern.  Within each region are administrative areas which would be the local towns or cities.  For example there would be a supervisor for greater Moncton, Saint John etc who would answer to the regional manager for that particular region.

With every ambulance working for the same service it is now common practice for units from other areas be tasked to assist all over the province. For example, If a patient is being transported to Saint John from Moncton, once the unit drops off the patient they may be tasked to stay in Saint John if it is busy and they are depleted on units. This is another advantage of having one system. Units are also moved in for “coverage” if the need arises. If Moncton gets really busy and is short on ambulances, medic center will have a unit from Salisbury “post” to greater Moncton and may also have a unit from Sackville post to Greater Moncton and so on… This happens all over the province as the need arises. It is now not uncommon for someone to call 911 and have an ambulance from anywhere in the province respond to their call for help if they are the closest available unit with this new system. Ambulances are tracked by medic center with GPS systems with which ambulances are being equipped to ease the delivery of service especially with out of town crews possibly responding in areas they are not familiar with.

Ambulances are identified by numbers which range from the 100’s to 400’s as of February 2008.   Some units have the same number as when in private hands, such as A470 which is the old 470. New units have begun with 459, with numbers being at least 490 by the end of March 2008.   There is a unit numbered 810 but this is apparently an error that has not been rectified.

Ambulance numbers are not associated with a specific station as the fleet managers move units around as necessary for maintenance and in “hand-offs”.  A hand-off may occur in unusually long-haul transfers such as Dalhousie to Saint John. Two ambulances leave from the two end points, meet in the middle and the crews change vehicles.  In this case therefore the truck that had been based in Dalhousie will now be a Saint John truck, and vice versa. This is possible because every ambulance is equipped the same with the only difference being the 3 digit number on the truck.

There are various ambulance and other vehicle types: 

It is believed that all ambulances in the province are Ford van conversion Type II style ambulances (see photo)  however its possible there is some Type III Cube style ambulances within the province.  See the Nova Scotia page for more information on ambulance types.  Ambulance photo.   Here is a photo of Ambulance 486, taken when brand new in March 2008.  The paramedic shown appears here by permission!

Patient Transfer Units :   Dedicated, purposely equipped units for non-emergency use. These units will exist in the future. Regular ambulances may be tasked for PTU duties, for part or all of a shift.

Supervisor units  : Currently only exist in Saint John, driven by supervisory personnel. These units are Jeep Cherokee SUV's with extra equipment, and the expertise of the senior paramedics driving them.  Eventually every region will have supervisor units.

Administrative units: These are Ford mini-vans, white with a blue and gold stripe along the sides.  They are marked with a two-digit number and are used to carry management around the province.  They are not equipped with emergency gear, but do have a yellow LED light in the back window. Possibly only 1 or 2 currently in use within NB to date.  Photo.

Medical Command Post Vehicle:  Not thought to exist as of yet. There will be a command post in the future

Fleet Mechanical units:  Not thought to exist as of yet. These units will exist in the future

New ambulances for ANB are produced by Malley Industries based in Dieppe, NB.

Maintenance Services: 

There is a fleet centre in each region. The location of these fleet centers is unknown at this time except for the eastern region whose fleet center is located somewhere in Greater Moncton. The fleet centers are where all spare trucks for the region are stored, and of course where maintenance is done.

Ambulance bases

Bases or Stations around the province are mostly the same bases that were in use with the 52 private services however in the future as the need arises, new bases will be built. Some bases may have more the one unit stationed there or the area could have “posts” scattered throughout the city to expand the coverage area.

Crew Shifts and Accomodations:  

Shifts are either 12 hour or 24 hour, and vary by base.  24 hour shifts are in place in most rural areas in which it is determined that calls for service are generally at a low enough level that crews can sleep during the shift.   It is not known if there is a mandated time of the day in which sleeping is permitted. 24 hr bases are equipped with bed.  In other locations, which have 12 hour shifts, there are no beds as sleeping is not permitted at a 12 hr base. All bases have a kitchen, couches, chairs, as well as cable or satellite TV, there is also a computer with blocked high-speed internet.

Medical First Response (MFR): 

Often you will hear that fire is also being dispatched to the scene of an emergency for medical assistance.  This is where trained personnel, usually in fire departments, are dispatched where it is thought that they could be on the scene before the responding ambulance.  In some cases these personnel are trained paramedics themselves or they might have received training in some basic but important lifesaving techniques.  This is particularly useful in rural areas where the fire personnel might be much closer to the scene.   In rural areas you will often hear both agencies being dispatched and arriving at nearly the same time, or even the ambulance arriving before the fire truck.  It is quite interesting in these cases of dual dispatch to hear the lag in time between one dispatch and the other!   The other interesting fact is that both might be coming from the same station (in cases where the ambulance is based at a fire station). As of Feb 2008 there is no provincial MFR program in place for NB however this is being worked out as you read this and will be in place in the near future. When the need for MFR arises, MCMC contacts the appropriate fire dept to have them respond. This is (or will be) done by the FRCO (First Response Communications Officer) if one is in place. Otherwise the 911 PSAP operator (call-taker) will make that judgement.

OLMC:

Paramedics are also able to access the services of an over-the-air physician who may give special advice and also give permission for the administering of certain drugs or to instruct with unusual procedures.  This service is called OLMC (On-line medical control).  This can be done over the radio with a patch to directly to the doctor or the requesting crew can call a special 1-888 number to make contact with the on duty physician.

Contact with ER:

Ambulances coming into the ER with a patient will contact the ER directly by radio to give them a brief story about their patient they are bringing in so the staff can prepare accordingly for their arrival. Currently this is done with the VHF system on the same channel as the dispatching. This is problematic for everyone as radio traffic can become VERY heavy and for example a crew in Miramichi will now have to listen to a hospital report from a crew in Moncton, due to simulcasting within regions.  It is currently being worked on to have hospitals operate on their own channel to reduce this radio traffic. 

List of New Brunswick hospitals.

Note :  It is heavily rumored that the province of NB will have a brand new Radio system in the next 3 to 5 years which will include a MAJOR upgrade with ambulance services to be a major consideration when it comes time for implementation. It is also heavily rumored that this will be tied in with the NS radio system which also is due to be changed in 3-5 years…this will allow for Inter-Province operations. Stay Tuned!