Emergency First Responders Trained for Lapoile - Jul 18, 2007

Three individuals have been trained as Emergency First Responders as part of Western Health’s Primary Health Care Project in Port aux Basques. Delores Vautier, Tiffany Osmond and Cathy Chant successfully participated in a forty hour training program through St. John Ambulance that certified them as Emergency First Responders. 

 

Lapoile is a rural community located on the south west coast of Newfoundland with a population of approximately 100 residents.   This community is accessible by boat or helicopter and medical service is provided by a travelling clinic once every three weeks, weather permitting. In the event of an emergency, a call is made to the health centre and through an assessment over the phone, a collaborative effort is made to get the patient out of the community either by helicopter, the Marine Atlantic transport ferry or by open boat to the community of Rose Blanche and then transporting the patient to the health centre. 

 

The community of Lapoile previously had no trained medical personnel in their community. Three women from the community stepped forward and volunteered to embrace one of the corner stones of Primary Health Care, accessibility to Emergency Services. Through funding provided by Western Health and the provincial Department of Health and Community Services these women were provided training and became certified as Emergency First Responders under the St. John Ambulance Program. 

 

These individuals have taken ownership for the emergency needs of this remote community. This momentous event has been the result of the collaborative effort of the community of Lapoile, the Department of Health and Community Services, Western Health and the Primary Health Care team in Port aux Basques.

 

 

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For more information,

Please contact:

Heidi Staeben-Simmons

Director of Communications,

Western Health 709-637-5252