Urgences-santé (

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Culture, language and peoples * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England * ''English'', an Amish ter ...

: Health Emergencies) is the statutory public

emergency medical service Emergency medical services (EMS), also known as ambulance services, pre-hospital care or paramedic services, are emergency services that provide urgent pre-hospital treatment and stabilisation for serious illness and injuries and transport to ...

for the islands of

Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

and Laval,

Quebec Quebec is Canada's List of Canadian provinces and territories by area, largest province by area. Located in Central Canada, the province shares borders with the provinces of Ontario to the west, Newfoundland and Labrador to the northeast, ...

. The corporation operates a fleet of 165 vehicles and employs over 1,300 people, including 891 professional paramedics. Urgences-santé is one of the largest paramedical services in

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

Organization

Urgences-santé as a corporation was formally created in 1989 under section 149.1 of the ''Loi sur les services de santé et les services sociaux'' and granted jurisdiction as a public health agency on the islands of Montréal and Laval, where it is responsible for the planning, organization, coordination and evaluation of emergency medical services; the operation of an ambulance service, a first responder service, and a medical communications centre; providing management, training and expertise consultancy services to emergency medical service partners and maintaining the ability to commercialize such services in Québec, Canada and abroad. The corporation is the sole provider of

advanced life support Advanced Life Support (ALS) is a set of life-saving protocols and skills that extend basic life support to further support the circulation and provide an open airway and adequate ventilation (breathing). Components Key aspects of ALS level care ...

services in its jurisdiction, and a major provider of

basic life support Basic life support (BLS) is a level of medical care which is used for patients with life-threatening condition of cardiac arrest until they can be given full medical care by advanced life support providers (paramedics, nurses, physicians or any ...

(BLS) alongside the

Service de sécurité incendie de Montréal Service may refer to: Activities * Administrative service, a required part of the workload of university faculty * Civil service, the body of employees of a government * Community service, volunteer service for the benefit of a community or a ...

(the Montreal City Fire Department), the

Département de sécurité incendie de Laval In the administrative divisions of France, the department (, ) is one of the three levels of government under the national level ("territorial collectivity, territorial collectivities"), between the Regions of France, administrative regions a ...

(Laval Fire Department), and various partners in the community, includin
Côte Saint-Luc Emergency Medical Services
Field operations are carried out by nearly a thousand full-time paramedics.

Operations

Urgences-santé is responsible for an area of over with a population of over 2.3 million people. It maintains a fleet of 165 ambulances and performs over 272,000 medical transports every year to, or between, 23 hospitals in the Montreal metropolitan region. Of the 363,000 emergency and non-emergency calls received in 2011, 285,000 required an ambulance dispatch, 226,000 required an ambulance transport, 70,000 required a priority 1 response for life-threatening situations, and 224 required a major emergency service mobilization. Operations are managed from three regional divisions: East, West and North. The ambulance service also maintains specialized units: *

Montreal Metro The Montreal Metro (, ) is a rubber-tired underground rapid transit system serving Greater Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The metro, operated by the Société de transport de Montréal (STM), was inaugurated on October 14, 1966, during the tenure ...

team that performs over 600 interventions a year in the metro *Bicycle patrol team that performs over 450 sorties to cover summer festivals and events *Technical support team that performs close to 3,000 interventions in support of paramedics *Tactical team that is tasked with performing some 270 high-risk medical interventions alongside the

and Laval

SWAT A SWAT (''Special Weapons and Tactics'') team is a generic term for a police tactical unit within the United States, though the term has also been used by other nations. SWAT units are generally trained, equipped, and deployed to res ...

teams.

History

A citywide ambulance service was originally introduced by the

Service de police de la Ville de Montréal The Service de police de la Ville de Montréal (, "Montreal Police Service", abbr. SPVM) is the municipal police agency for the city of Montreal, Quebec, Canada, and the neighbouring communities in the urban agglomeration of Montreal. With over 4 ...

in 1958. Many of the suburban municipalities followed Montréal's lead; island-wide service was provided when police services were centralized under the Montreal Urban Community in 1970. By the late 1970s, however, police ambulance training and equipment had fallen behind contemporary standards and the service was finally withdrawn. Urgences-santé was created in 1981 by forming a centralized dispatch system for the region's 25 privately owned ambulance services. The original full name was ''Centre de coordination des urgences santé'' (Health Emergencies Coordination Centre). As part of the program, a single telephone number for emergency medical services was introduced for the islands of Montreal and Laval (842-4242). All private services were invited to use Urgences-santé for dispatch and later, billing. The contracting companies were paid to maintain ambulance availability and on a per-call basis. Consolidation of the private companies and the formation of a militant labour organization caused much instability including a strike in 1986. In 1989, following the transfer of ambulance service to the health and social services department, the system was re-organized and formalized by an act of the

Quebec National Assembly The National Assembly of Quebec (, ) is the legislative body of the province of Quebec in Canada. Legislators are called MNAs (Members of the National Assembly; ). The lieutenant governor of Quebec (representing the King of Canada) and the Nat ...

Advanced care paramedics

Historically staffed exclusively by primary care paramedics, one cohort of advanced care paramedics was trained in the late 1980s. In 2016, a new 2-year advanced care paramedicine program was launched at

Université de Montréal The Université de Montréal (; UdeM; ) is a French-language public research university in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The university's main campus is located in the Côte-des-Neiges neighborhood of Côte-des-Neiges–Notre-Dame-de-Grâce on M ...

. The first cohort graduated in 2018.

Workplace incivility and violence allegations

On September 28, 2020, Nicola D’Ulisse, CEO of Urgences-Santé, steps down temporarily after two complaints related to the policy of ''prevention and management of workplace incivility, harassment and violence of'' Urgences-Santé. Mr Yvan Gendron is announced as the new temporary CEO. An official investigation is announced. On December 18, 2020, Urgences-Santé announces the permanent step down of M.D'Ulisse as its CEO. No information are available concerning the findings of the investigation about the actions of Nicola D’Ulisse during is time working at the corporation

References

External links

* /www.urgences-sante.qc.ca/ Urgences-santé {{DEFAULTSORT:Urgences-sante Ambulance services in Canada Healthcare in Montreal