C-K Paramedics Helping Indigenous Communities In Northern Ontario

Three Chatham-Kent paramedics returned home on Wednesday after a two-week mission in Northern Ontario, where they’ve been putting their skills to use assisting several Indigenous communities in remote and isolated areas.

The General Manager of Chatham-Kent EMS, Donald MacLellan says members of the C-K EMS team have been delivering primary, public and emergency health services as part of a new program alongside Indigenous Services Canada and the federal government to supplement the current health care work force in Indigenous and remote areas.

MacLellan says the local medics are serving a variety of roles while deployed, including working alongside physicians and nurses in in nursing clinics while using their paramedic skills and utilizing their emergency acute care skills when necessary. The local EMS team is also assisting with COVID-19 assessments and health education within the public they’re serving in each community where they are working.

The C-K EMS GM says the program will continue with opportunities for paramedics across Canada and he sends his appreciation to the three local medics who immediately supported this initiative. In Chatham-Kent, several more local paramedics have added their name to the list to participate in future missions.

“I do want to congratulate and thank the paramedics who have taken on this initial mission,” adds MacLellan. “They’ve done a great job representing their profession as well as representing Chatham-Kent. They’re working in these areas to really promote where they’re from and what they’re all about. We certainly have to celebrate those moments.”