Northumberland Paramedics share top-ten list

By Cecilia Nasmith

If you have ever wondered what kind of calls the Northumberland Paramedics respond to, deputy chief Shawn Silvestri gave a presentation on the top 10 at Monday's Northumberland County Community Health Committee meeting.

Weakness and a general unwell feeling is the top reason ambulances roll, making up 13.2% of their calls, Silvestri said, followed by musculoskeletal injury (9%), abdominal pain (7.17%), shortness of breath and asthma (6.49%), chest pain (4.26%), and psychiatric and behavioural issues (4.09%).

Trauma and injury calls (4.03%) saw a significant decline early in the pandemic, when strict lockdowns were in effect, Silvestri noted, but numbers came back up when people became more active.

Rounding out the list were nausea-vomiting-diarrhea (3.53%), a catch-all category of other issues (3.09%) and stroke (2.89%).

Councillor Bill Cane was disturbed that paramedics were called for psychiatric issues, but Chief Susan Brown noted that there were partnerships in place for the disposition of these calls. This includes their ability to call in police if the situation develops into something dangerous – though she noted that the paramedics typically try to de-escalate the situations themselves.