(File photo/paNOW Staff)

By Cam Lee

Honouring telecommunicators

Honouring those behind-the-scenes: celebrating National Public Safety Telecommunicators Week

Apr 14, 2020 | 5:00 PM

This week offers a chance to say thank you to a vital part of emergency response across the country.

It’s National Public Safety Telecommunicators Week.

Melfort Ambulance manager Wayne Therres said telecommunicators are the behind-the-scenes workers that co-ordinate any kind of emergency response.

“They’re the first line of access for help in any emergency,” Therres told northeastNOW.

More well-versed on the medical side of emergency response, Therres said medical telecommunicators provide pre-arrival instructions to the ambulance and paramedics. The telecommunicators will then co-ordinate the paramedics and their allied services.

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“If we have something like a motor vehicle collision, they’re going to coordinate the information between us, the Melfort Fire Department in this case, and Melfort RCMP, so we’re all getting the same information kind of at the same time,” Therres said.

He called the medical communication specialists ‘the paramedic’s lifeline’, as they gather information, continue to monitor and supervise the safety of the paramedics responding to the call, and monitor the person involved in the call.

“They’re our first line of communication between us and the client that’s making the call for help,” Therres explained.

He said you don’t often hear about telecommunicators, but they are the background people that are performing a vital task for an emergency response.

Therres congratulated their medical communications team that works out of the Parkland Ambulance station in Prince Albert.

“They’re the lifeline for the majority of the ambulance services in the northeast part of the province here, and I just want to send congratulations and thank you out to them and tell them to enjoy a safe telecommunicators week.”

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cam.lee@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @camlee1974