JoeyC
Senior Member
1stresponders said:
Paid by who? So in Toronto, if you call for an ambulance you get a 1st responder before the city EMS???
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Paid by who? So in Toronto, if you call for an ambulance you get a 1st responder before the city EMS???
Fleetcom do something stupid? IMPOSSIBLE!!!
It's possible his group does first responce for community groups and that kind of thing. For example, where I work, dialing 911 doesn't actually get you 911, it gets you our security desk who will then decide if the "real" 911 needs to be called.
If you call 911 from an external landline anywhere in Toronto, you get Toronto EMS. However, if it's a private venue, they may have their own in-house medical response teams. The University of Toronto for example, has 2 paramedics on staff during the day who respond to everything medical.
If you call 911 from an external landline anywhere in Toronto, you get Toronto EMS. However, if it's a private venue, they may have their own in-house medical response teams. The University of Toronto for example, has 2 paramedics on staff during the day who respond to everything medical.
Ditto for UWO in London. Dialing 911 on campus gets you thru to campus police who dispatch SERT for medical calls (as well as Thames EMS). A call for a fire alarm gets dispatched to LFD and UWO Fire Prevention. I would imagine this is pretty standard practice on most large campuses.
1stresponders
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Our general practice policies is that we respond first, we arrive usually with in 90 seconds. And start treating the patient, and also asses whether or not EMS is actually needed, same as some of what the others where saying. 60% of our calls don't require EMS where as if we hadn't existed EMS would have responded. On the flip side where it is a life threatening emergency the first few minutes can make the difference between a full recovery and a half beat blob called a human.
We respond both for companies and events, we are on call, well will be once we can be called. (January 5th our budget is released to us for radios.) As of now we cover events, clubs, picnics, dances, concerts, parties, sports activities. However we are paid by only these groups, we don't sit there listening to EMS's scanner waiting to see if something is in our area if we could beat EMS there.
911 will still dial the Toronto Emergency Switch board but there is a seperate number that we strongly advertise people to call.
When we get our equipment and everything released I'll give you an update on what we got.
As I've said before thank you for your help...
p.s. the talking to a dealer part was a really good idea.
Our general practice policies is that we respond first, we arrive usually with in 90 seconds. And start treating the patient, and also asses whether or not EMS is actually needed, same as some of what the others where saying. 60% of our calls don't require EMS where as if we hadn't existed EMS would have responded. On the flip side where it is a life threatening emergency the first few minutes can make the difference between a full recovery and a half beat blob called a human.
We respond both for companies and events, we are on call, well will be once we can be called. (January 5th our budget is released to us for radios.) As of now we cover events, clubs, picnics, dances, concerts, parties, sports activities. However we are paid by only these groups, we don't sit there listening to EMS's scanner waiting to see if something is in our area if we could beat EMS there.
911 will still dial the Toronto Emergency Switch board but there is a seperate number that we strongly advertise people to call.
When we get our equipment and everything released I'll give you an update on what we got.
As I've said before thank you for your help...
p.s. the talking to a dealer part was a really good idea.
1stresponders said:
I doubt it goes to a switchboard.. most likely a call center or dispatch center.
Is the number that you're advising people to call monitored 24/7? Does it have redundancies and backup in case the line fails or the place where it's answered is evacuated? What qualifications do your call evaluators have? Do they follow the Advanced Medical Priority Dispatch System, or whatever the equivalent (APCO MEDS, etc) in Toronto? Do your call evaluators transfer legitimately critical cases to 911 for evaluation by TEMS and the dispatch of a transporting unit? (If you are transporting, has MOH licensed you to do so?)
If you're standing by at community events, etc., that is one thing - and done regularly here, there, and everywhere. Here, crews that do such standbys need no dedicated phone number to call for response - the crew is simply "in place" at the event. Your user ID here and your descriptions lead me to believe that you have a base of operations somewhere, and actually respond lights & sirens to emergencies, in which case you'd need all the things I asked in my questions above. As a former Torontonian, I'm interested in what type of service you're providing and examples of events you cover.
Well I guess I'll ask straight out. What group is it you work/volunteer for? If it's big enough to have a budget and dedicated dispatch centres, it must at least have a website.
Giving out a separate emergency number? BAD idea. 911 is the only number people should be using for emergency calls - PERIOD.
I coordinate communications and emergency response for the largest weekend event in Ontario (and probably Canada) and while we have our own staff on site for response, pay-duty officers at our disposal, we still direct everything to 911.
If your organization is legitimate and provides a service to the public, 911 will call you to inform you of a medical emergency. At my event, Toronto EMS, Toronto Fire and Toronto Police contact us on a Joint Emergency Services talkgroup if there is any kind of emergency on site so that we can dispatch our staff as well as theirs.
Bottom line is that if my a$$ is on the line, Toronto EMS, Toronto Fire and Toronto Police are the only people who I'm going to let near me. I've seen SJA and other volunteer groups f*ck up too bad and too often to make them worth the risk - in my opinion.
Giving out a separate emergency number? BAD idea. 911 is the only number people should be using for emergency calls - PERIOD.
I coordinate communications and emergency response for the largest weekend event in Ontario (and probably Canada) and while we have our own staff on site for response, pay-duty officers at our disposal, we still direct everything to 911.
If your organization is legitimate and provides a service to the public, 911 will call you to inform you of a medical emergency. At my event, Toronto EMS, Toronto Fire and Toronto Police contact us on a Joint Emergency Services talkgroup if there is any kind of emergency on site so that we can dispatch our staff as well as theirs.
Bottom line is that if my a$$ is on the line, Toronto EMS, Toronto Fire and Toronto Police are the only people who I'm going to let near me. I've seen SJA and other volunteer groups f*ck up too bad and too often to make them worth the risk - in my opinion.
Chomper1313
Member
Yes well as i am sure you know,opinions are like a$$holes..everybody has one.I think what they are doing is good....if they have proper training.I agree they shouldn't have "Amature first aiders" but from what i've heard they are paramedics and should be able to handle a situation until EMS gets there better than your average joe.
JoeyC
Senior Member
Well, since the response time is 90 seconds at mainly small venues and events, sounds to me as if FRS or GMRS radios will suffice. And I agree that only 911 should be used as an emergency number PERIOD.
slicerwizard
Member
That's fine until some dick decides to start jamming their comms. Getting some real radios that have enough power to reliably punch through concrete walls and are able to survive a serious drop and are legally licensed on channels that a kid with his Wal-Mart special can't touch would be prudent, IMO.JoeyC said:
Legally licensed eh? Well, you can pretty much rule out Digital Mobile, Action Radio, Lakeshore Electronics and Mobile Business for that one.
Oops, there's nobody left in Toronto then!
Oops, there's nobody left in Toronto then!
exkalibur said:
Forgive me for a little shameless plug, but I'm working with a good friend on a startup, Westronics (http://www.westronics.ca), a small shop hoping to grow big, based out of Brampton. Since July we've done several installs of equipment (Scanners, "Mods" as the drivers call the Motorola Maxtracs), and the like into tow trucks.
We do offer 2-way rental products as does Lakeshore, and the system we use is fully licensed.
Lakeshore has been pissing a lot of people off lately (or so we keep hearing), and so we are only too happy to have that business come to us.
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jellotor
Member
phyberoptics said:
Forgive me for being presumptuous, but is that something you want the world to know?
jellotor said:
Hmm, I think we are taking a responsible approach in preventing the public from being able to transmit on public-safety systems...so yeah, I'm ok with that...why would someone have an issue with that?
DaveH
Member
Sorry, case of mistaken identity. I got you mixed up with the the thread-starter
and jumped to conclusions. Again apologies to anyone who read the (deleted)
message....egg on face.
Dave
and jumped to conclusions. Again apologies to anyone who read the (deleted)
message....egg on face.
Dave
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slicerwizard
Member
No kidding. For more than a year, Fleetcom ran two UHF channels on their PassPort system that were 1 MHz (!) off of where the license said they should be. Also, back when they had a Type II system (SysID 8934) on Airport Road, it couldn't penetrate all the concrete and steel in Terminal 3, so they added 900 MHz simplex channels (picked at random) to the portables that their customers were using in the terminal; the users stopped using the trunked channels (usage logs confirmed this) and did all their business on unlicensed 935 MHz channels. And Fleetcom kept billing them for airtime every month (for unlicensed simplex!)exkalibur said:
slicerwizard
Member
Lately? They've been doing it for years. Management's M.O. was always "Do the bare minimum and charge as much as you can get away with."phyberoptics said:
They were also big on promising what they knew they couldn't deliver (coverage, features, delivery dates, reliability, whatever), just to get the sale.
Edit: I also see nothing wrong with disabling TX on radios. It's a responsible move.
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slicerwizard said:
Thanks for the backup. I take pride in snipping the little cable...
I have to wonder if the guy thought i was opening police radios and snipping the wire LMFAO!!!
phyberoptics said:
I assume you mean on a trunking system? The safest way to prevent these suckers from transmitting is:
1) Program both positions of the concentric switch (assuming it has one) to TX Inhibit
2) Disable the PTT button, either through software or hardware
3) Set coverage type to Disabled, and Affiliate on PTT
4) Go into the service menu and adjust all the TX power settings to zero.
If you do that, it's a safe bet that the radio will never transmit.
jellotor
Member
phyberoptics said:
Um, no...that's not what I thought. Simply disabling TX (as Mike pointed out) doesn't prevent the radio from affiliating. Either way, I'll just shut up now.
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