By Cecilia Nasmith
The ambulance can get you to Northumberland Hills Hospital with dispatch.
But you are on your own to get home once your medical emergency has been addressed and, in some cases, that simple trip home is fraught with expense and inconvenience – as described to Cobourg council at Monday's committee-of-the-whole meeting by Golden Plough Lodge Family Council members Gwen Barnes, Lynn Taylor and Miriam Mutton.
This group advocates for residents of the county's home for the aged, and they have experienced this problem for some months.
Barnes described a recent incident to illustrate the situation, the case of a 93-year-old who had a bad fall. He was transported by ambulance around the corner to NHH, treated and discharged. But he had no means to get home.
Normally wheelchair-bound, the man had been taken to hospital on a stretcher. With no accessible taxi service in town, a private company that provides accessible transport for passengers on a stretcher was located.
“Only after a credit card number was approved did the resident get a time and cost. It was initially an eight-hour wait, later changed to three hours. The cost from NHH to the Golden Plough Lodge was $160.18,” Barnes related.
In another case, that of a family member who accompanied a Plough resident to hospital, the relative was unable to get transportation when the case wound up in the wee hours of the morning after local taxi services stopped for the day. That person was forced to spend the night in a chair in the emergency room until the taxi services began running the following day.
Voyageur, the company that transported the 93-year-old Plough resident home, charges $160.18 for trips shorter than 10 km. For those longer than 10 km., the overage is charged at $2.50 per kilometre.
“Community Care does not transfer people on stretchers. Their clients have to travel independently or with a personal service worker,” Barnes added.
People on stretchers also cannot be transported via the Wheels transit service, she continued, and ambulances only operate when dealing with an emergency – not in the aftermath of one.
“It's very stressful for residents and families, and there doesn't seem to be any options. It's a situation that hasn't been addressed, to our knowledge,” Barnes said.
“Our residents need some reassurance they can return to their homes in a timely manner with no financial worry.”
Mayor John Henderson said that, as a member of county council, his area of responsibility is social services – and this is an issue he has never seen raised.
Henderson pledged to the presenters that he will strive to get them invited to state their case at a county council meeting in the near future – February if possible.
Councillor Brian Darling also suggested forwarding a copy of the presentation to Northumberland-Peterborough South MPP David Piccini.
