Monteregie will keep four ambulances it was set to lose

CETAM ambulance service

The Monteregie ambulance service will be able to keep the four ambulances it was about to lose.

South Shore ambulance service, the Coopérative des techniciens ambulanciers de la Montérégie (CETAM), said Monday that due to a lack of funding from the provincial government, four ambulances serving the region would have to cease operations, representing 14 full-time positions.

CETAM said it is not up to them but the regional health board to decide on the number of ambulances a territory needs.

In 2019, CETAM called for up to seven additional ambulances to adequately serve the territory.

Two years later, the CISSS de la Montérégie-Centre and Montérégie-Ouest authorized the addition of three ambulances from their budgets. In 2022, the CISSS de la Montérégie-Centre added one more ambulance, again from its budget, bringing the total number of new vehicles to four.

This year, CISSS indicated that it is no longer able to fund these four ambulances.

The Tuesday, the regional health board reversed course, saying the ambulances will stay.

"If we didn’t have those ambulances, those calls would be given to other paramedic teams that are already overloaded with calls. It’s just unimaginable to have thought that not having those ambulances would be a good idea at this point. They were clearly needed," said Patrick Jasmin of CETAM.

The ambulances, covering Vaudreuil-Dorion, Salaberry-de-Valleyfield, Châteauguay and Saint-Bruno-de-Montarville, represent 16,000 hours of service per year.

- With files from The Canadian Press