Tony Harold

24 Hour Ambulance Service in Pickering

Did you know that Tony undertook an initiative in 1985 to require 24 hour ambulance service in Pickering; a population of 40,000 people? Then, Pickering’s Ambulance Service was only staffed from 8am to midnight. After midnight, there was only one ambulance to cover both Ajax and Pickering, and this ambulance was based at the Ajax-Pickering Hospital. If the Ajax ambulance was called out, the only Whitby ambulance on duty was dispatched to the Ajax/Whitby border, and was responsible for Pickering, Ajax and Whitby, until the Ajax ambulance was clear and available.
A family member of Tony’s took ill at five minutes past Midnight in the spring of 1985. Tony called the ambulance (no 911 in those days – you had to either call the Bell operator or know the 7 digit phone number for the ambulance!). While the tiered response system was invoked and Pickering’s Fire Service attended within 5 minutes, it was a full 18 minutes for the ambulance to arrive. As you can guess, the ambulance had to travel from Whitby, as the Ajax ambulance received a priority call just moments prior to Tony’s call. The Whitby ambulance was just being notified to stand-by in Ajax when Tony’s call came in, thus it had to travel from its base in Whitby to Tony’s residence.
Given the relatively long wait and the fact that the ambulance had to be called from Whitby, Tony undertook intensives efforts to lobby for full 24 hour ambulance service in Pickering. Tony’s initial efforts helped in getting Pickering full 24/7 ambulance service later the following year.