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4’1an - - nun-um“ was: In bun-(slnussm [aim ushittarortttkw PAGE 3 There was something for everyone at the 2001 Uptown Waterloo Jazz Festival. Pictured (above) trumpet player Ray Podhornik's brand of jazz brought (at left) Denise Alton and Jim Cuppage to their feet for a fast dance; while (below left) balloon expert Rich Leconte made "water- guns" for his fans, and two-year-old Madison Lee enjoyed enjoyed the Discovery Toys display. Uptown Jazz ANDREA BAILEY PHOTOS Paramedic services see improvements mpmvements to ambu- Ilance servicesarecoming to Waterloo region next month. The enhancements, part of a three-year plan by the gegion, will be.imilleTer.ite.d by Aug. 1 and will include hiring more paramedics. and putting more ambu- lances on the road for longer periods of time. [ohn Prno, director of emergency services for Waterloo Region, said simi- lar improvements will be introduced across the region over the next three years. "The region's moving very aggressively at enhanc- ing the service," Pmo said. "The councillors have taken a definite stand that it has to be imrrrpve4" A highlight of . the enhancement plan is a tar- get response time of less thannine minutes for90 per cent of calls Currently, the average response time is nine minutes, 40 seconds longer than the provincial standard urban response time of nine minutes, 24 sec- onds. A report from the region says local municipal- tttik exceed the provincial standard by between one minute, 40 seconds and two minutes. 18 seconds. However, Pmo points out that in the tive years since that standard was set, the region has grown and calls for service have increased by 50 per cent. At the same time, he said, the province didn't increase funding to emergency medical services before they were down- loaded to municipalities, By the end of the three-year plan, emergency medical services will see its budget increase to $8.6 million from the current $6.7 million. "The municipality had decided whatit wantedasa standard and has put the money in to do it," Prno Br Cum-ANN Noam For the Chronicle Rural response times in "ttmrs_mdttttthti$'rqqVtV yu1nnssm I‘m 133%!qu Waterloo Region range from 19 minutes, 16 seconds to 26 minutes, nine seconds. The region also hopes to achieve a nine-minute rural response time. "The target is the same response time anywhere in the region." Prno said. "Council couldn't see how it could endorse one target for one group of citizens and another target for another group of citizens when they all pay the same taxes." Improvements to local paramedic services will include adding a second overnight ambulance seven days a week. and extending the hours of one of the three ambulances that operate in the day. Pmo said three new full-time paramedics will also be hired, The region's three-year plans calls for the hiring of another 45 paramedics. Increasing staff will not only help the region improve its response time, it will also mean that each ambulance will be staffed by one advanced-care paramedic and one primary care para- 0f the more than 100 paramedics currently work- ing for the region's ambu- lance service, 32 are trained in advanced care, meaning they are able to insert breathing tubes, provide cardiac monitoring and administer the appropriate medications to critically ill patients. Last year, para- medics responded to 35,000 calls for service. Uke family doctors, para- medics are hard to come by. Pmo said only M para- medic: graduate each year from Conestoga College, and the competition is fierce because other municipali- ties are also hiring This fear, he said, there were no col, lege graduates because the paramedic program was extended from one year to 'We're out there really recruiting. let's put it that way" Ptno said.