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The way we were was indeed a much different world. Take, for instance, the Kitchenerâ€"Waterloo Hospital ambulance service. In 1913, the young operation, boasting one horse drawn carriage, madg 59 calls throughout the entire year. Last year, the service, now replete with the horseâ€"power of six Dodge ambulances, made 59 calls in one DAY en route to a total of over 11,000 calls. .--Ai '(â€")\;;; '76”y'é£rs old, it is the oldest hospitalâ€"operated ambulance service in Ontario, a distinction to be lost on August 1. when an as yet unnamed private operator takes over. vfigw;w in 1977 avéraged 31 calls a day which surely would have worn out a lot of horses back in the early part of the century. _ . _ The exact date the service started hasn‘t been pinâ€" ned down. Records date back to 1911, when 87 calls were made, but the hospital also has a 1903 photograph showâ€" The Kâ€"W Hospital ambulance service was literally operated by horsepower in the early years of this century. The service is over 70 years old though the exact date it started hasn‘t been established. This photo was published in a The selection process is underway to find a priâ€" vate operator to take over the Kitchenerâ€"Waterloo Hospital‘s ambulance service. . "(i;:lgmally the takeâ€"over, announced last fall in October, by the hospital board, was to take place at the end of this month. â€" â€" The deadline was extended because "the time frame just wasn‘t adequate at all," explained Wilf Erb, director of the ambulance service. Normally, nine months is needed for such a switchâ€"over, Erb said, adding that the new July 31 deadline is even tight. Some takeâ€"overs have been extended to a year. Takeover of ambulance extended to July About 20 proposals have been received and the hospital is receiving many calls expressing interâ€" est. The provincial government wants all proposals from private operators to be in Toronto by April 3. One will be selected by June giving the operator two months to organize. Erb doesn‘t expect any further extensions. If so, it would only be a short one. _ â€" The government is looking for an operator who can deliver the same level of service at a reasonâ€" able amount of money. The province is now notably tightfisted with its health expenditures. l:'lf;rc;u-re fibping to become a millionaire." said Erb, ‘Forget it." e _ Currently, the service has about 33 employees, a number which is "slowly decreasing,"" stated Erb. He anticipates the private operator will need 23 ambulance service personnel and five dispatchers. Some current employees will take other jobs within the hospital to enjoy benefits accrued over the years. Some others may not join the private operaâ€" tion for personal reasons, Erb said. Horsepower, of a sort, still runs ambulances, By Jim MacDonald ing the hospital‘s horse and carriage. The service entered the mechanized world in 1918 when a McLaughlin Buick was purchased by the hospitâ€" al‘s auxiliary. ‘"Up until then, it was all horse and buggy," noted Wilf Erb, director of the ambulance service for the past 26 years. _ The service was pretty unique in the province. ‘"Hosâ€" pitals were not really noted for ambulance service. We were the oddball."‘ were the oddball.. P t Many services were provided as a Sideline of other businesses â€" furniture stores, service stations and, surely unnerving to patients, funeral homes. Many municipalities operated ambulance service but through their fire deâ€" partments. . _ "You name it, you had it. It was just a real helter skeliter thing,"" Erb recalled in an interview last week. nidinnfiturndlils fnininds. 2 ifi dsn theiabrninfs ds in is tbiienn in mb l c n o e se Until the late 1940s, the local service operated only one vehigle. Gradually as demand and population grew, it was built/up one by one to its current total of six. e Uftil ambulances had to meet government specificaâ€" tions in 1968, they arrived in a hodgeâ€"podge of forms. Erb has seen ‘ambulances‘ which were nothing more than a pickup truck with a mattress in the back. _ / A variety of conversions of other models such as vans were used by the hospital. Economy was the reason; a 1951 Cadillac ambulance, for example, cost $7,500, a hefty amount in those preâ€"inflation, preâ€"89 centâ€" dollar days. Conversions were cheaper. e In the past, the life of an ambulance was stretched for 10 years. Today, ambulances are used until they hit the 100,000 mile mark which can take three to five years deâ€" pending upon use. Employees were assigned fullâ€"time to ambulance servâ€" ice only about six years ago. Prior to that, drivers and service personnel held other jobs within the hospital, such as orderlies, and responded to ambulance duties when The service‘s first mechanized vehicle was this 1918 Mcâ€" Laughlin Buick purâ€" chased by the hosâ€" pital‘s auxiliary. June, 1903 edition of the predecessor of the Kâ€"W Record. Note the B&W on the wagon, referring to Kitchener‘s former name. Beriin. # * Waterion Chronicle, Wednesday, March 22, 1978 â€" Page 5 needed. Currently, the service has 33 employees including five dispatchers. â€" S _ year. Rapid population growth is one factor. Another was that ambulance costs came under. the provincial health plan in 1968 which encouraged people to use the serv_icg. Demand has jumped rapidly in the past 10 years. In 1967, 3,827 calls were made, almost 8,000 less than last A diversity of services among hospitals contributed. Many calls are to transfer patients from Kâ€"W Hospital to St. Mary‘s in Kitchener or hospitals in Cambridge and London for specialized treatment. Erb also feels another reason is that few doctors make house calls anymore. Besides vastly improved vehicles, personnel training has been upgraded. The province in 1967 instituted a oneâ€" month crash course to upgrade the skills of ambulance employees. "‘It was overdue that aspect of it," Erb agreed. Today, some community colleges offer oneâ€"year courses which include a variety of subjects from anatomy to training how to remove an accident victim from vehicles. The local service has had its share of traffic accidents, but fortunately none that resulted in the death of a patient. _ ‘"It‘s unavoidable," said Erb. "We‘ve had a number of them." C "We should of had something like this a long time ago to have equal service throughout the province," said Erb, who feels service in some parts of Ontario left something to be desired. Erb uses a favourite trick to ensure the driving comâ€" fort of patients riding in an ambulance. New drivers are strapped to a stretcher, placed in an ambulance, and taken for a rough ride to ‘"‘show them this is what you‘re putting your patients through.‘‘