The Toronto Star
LONDON, Ontario — Secret cabinet documents reveal the Health Ministry has investigated 26 patient deaths since 2007, including at least two children, due to alleged problems at ORNGE.
The 42-page Liberal briefing entitled “Investigations Concerning Air Ambulance and Related Services” is dated May 23 and was obtained by Progressive Conservative MPP Frank Klees from disgruntled public servants.
Klees charged the report proves nothing has changed at the air ambulance service since the ORNGE board was replaced earlier this year and senior management fired.
Cabinet documents are prepared for Premier Dalton McGuinty and his top ministers. However, a spokesperson for Health Minister Deb Matthews said this particular report was not handed out.
The documents indicate this year alone there have been 40 serious incidents probed by the ministry’s emergency health services branch, said Klees in a Friday press conference. Last year, 27 incidents were examined.
“Where was the decisive action, the decisive steps we were repeatedly told the minister had taken?” asked Klees. “The very fact that these incidents continue to take place proves . . . this organization has never had the core competency to manage an air ambulance service.”
Premier Dalton McGuinty told reporters in Ottawa he hadn’t seen the records and “couldn’t speak to their reliability” but he looks forward to “reviewing the document to find out exactly what its significance is.”
McGuinty defended ORNGE’s record of transporting 19,000 patients each year and said employees are “doing their very, very best.”
He also said the Liberals are working to change the culture at ORNGE. “We put in a new team, we’ve replaced the leadership there, we’ve put in place a new performance agreement which allows the minister to bring more oversight to bear and provide further direction that is taking place,” McGuinty said.
The latest service complaints include only one paramedic responding to a patient call, major delays in dispatching air ambulances, medics unable to perform CPR due to cramped conditions inside helicopters and running out of supplies like oxygen and medication.
In some incidents, ministry officials said ORNGE was not to blame and responded appropriately.
Serious cases outlined in the document include:
- Oct. 23, 2011: A single paramedic onboard an ORNGE helicopter responded to the collapse of a 14-year-old boy in Timiskaming. The medic informed the local emergency medical service he was unable to perform CPR on the patient during transport. The boy was transported by land ambulance and died. The coroner was notified.
- June 30, 2011: Windsor Regional Hospital required an emergency air ambulance transport to London for a critically ill child. When ORNGE first got the request there were resources available, but investigators found they did not create a record of the call and the flight planner could not review it. Windsor had to call ORNGE a second time. By then, nothing was available. The child died and the coroner was informed.
- July 17, 2011: In the London area it is alleged ORNGE failed to respond to a motor vehicle collision as the ORNGE communications centre was waiting to see “if the patient was hurt enough.” The helicopter never launched. One person died. The coroner was notified.
An all-party legislative committee has held eight hearings so far into the ORNGE scandal.
The probe has heard of various problems, including: dubious business strategies and the creation of a web of ORNGE for-profit companies that are now out of business; high salaries; and a questionable $6.7-million marketing agreement made after the purchase of 12 AgustaWestland helicopters.
ORNGE founder Dr. Chris Mazza has repeatedly been unable to testify due to medical reasons, but his girlfriend, Kelly Long, a former water-ski instructor turned ORNGE vice-president, has detailed her meteoric corporate rise through the agency to the committee.
Earlier this week, Klees told the hearing of incidents between May and October 2011 in which critically injured patients died after they were unable to get CPR inside ORNGE’s new AW 139 helicopters.
A Star investigation has catalogued the cramped interiors of the helicopters and how they were a disaster waiting to happen.
Klees called on the chief coroner of Ontario to step in and investigate.
Dr. Andrew McCallum, the province’s chief coroner, responded late Friday to say his office has investigated all ORNGE cases brought to their attention.
“Some of those investigations are still ongoing. Of our completed investigations, there have been no cases in which issues with air ambulance transportation materially affected the course of the patient’s illness or injury,” McCallum said in a statement.
The committee heard from fired ORNGE executive Tom Lepine, a former paramedic, that he knew of some of the incidents and complaints about the helicopters. He said when ORNGE is dispatched to pick up a trauma or critically ill patient, it is not entirely unusual if a patient dies.
ORNGE spent $6 million on the helicopters’ interiors and even sent a team, including Lepine, to Switzerland to oversee the design.
ORNGE said in a statement it has new leadership, it takes every incident seriously and progress has been made boosting patient safety.
Copyright 2012 Toronto Star Newspapers Limited