Yesterday Kelvin Goertzen, Minister of Health, Seniors and Active Living announced that 18 ambulance stations would be closing and Grandview’s is one of them.
The Grandview Municipality has invested in recruiting physicians and nurses to ensure the longevity of health care in their community.
Lyle Morran, Grandview Municipality Mayor, talks about the community’s concern over this.
“Well the concern is if the ambulance goes its one more step and I suppose it makes it easier for somebody to justify closing the hospital down the road,” noted Morran. “We sure do not want that to happen. Ambulance on paper maybe looks good, you can centralize it, but a few minutes could mean the difference between life and death. And when you have a local ambulance, they know the roads and they know the quickest way to get out of town. It’s very important I think to have a local ambulance.”
The Grandview Municipality plans to work on keeping their ambulance station and are requesting a meeting with local MLA Brad Michaleski and reaching out to the Minister of Health.