Pikangikum First Nation now has two ambulances in the community, after a number of agencies stepped up to address a need.
Due to unforeseen circumstances, Pikangikum First Nation was without its only medical transport vehicle used to move patients, whether it was from an incident scene, to the nursing station, or to its air ambulance site. But a quick response from the Independent First Nation Alliance and Kenora District Services Board, along with the Canadian Air Force, solved the problem.
“IFNA was aware that these vehicles were desperately needed by the community and reached out to our government and industry contacts to make it happen for the community at the request of Pikangikum Chief Shirley Lynne Keeper,” said Mathew Hoppe, IFNA CEO wrote in a statement.
It just so happened that the Kenora District Services Board had two surplus ambulances available.
“This is why it is so important that partnerships and good relations amongst our communities, but also with community agencies and organizations,” said Henry Wall, the chief administrative officer of the Kenora District Services Board.
"We shouldn’t just sit ideally by while individuals and family members are in emergency medical crisis, they are brought to the airport in the back of a pick-up truck or sorts and then wait to be flown out.”
Wall said that the services board had entered into a memorandum of understanding with IFNA, which outlined a commitment between to work together to collectively explore ways to that all communities are able to obtain paramedic services.
“Having that [agreement] in place and having the situation happen in Pikangikum made it quite easy for KDSB and IFNA to work together and see what we could do to support our partners in this crisis of a situation.”
Once IFNA had the ambulances, getting them from Kenora to Pikangikum would take the effort of the Canadian Air Forces and C130 Hercules aircraft.
“The Tribal Council reached out to the Canadian Armed Forces about the potential of using a heavy lift transport aircraft to get the vehicles on site ,who immediately set plans in motion to work with the community and IFNA to ensure the essential delivery operation flowed smoothly,” said Hoppe.
The failure of the service truck that had been used for medical transportation in Pikangikum sped up the timeline for needing the ambulances in the community, rather than waiting for winter roads.
“The use of the C130 Hercules aircraft has been a blessing and helps ensure the safety of Pikangikum community members before the onset of winter,” said Nick Rhone, IFNA's director of integrated emergency service.
The ambulance met the aircraft at Kenora airport and they were soon loaded onto the aircraft along with a KDSB Northwest EMS staff, who accompanied the vehicles to provide an overview of the vehicles, and a front-line paramedic, who will provide training in Pikangikum.
“If we look at the ambulances themselves, they are actually quite complex pieces of machinery. There are a lot of moving parts,” Wall said.
Wall acknowledged that the KDSB staff are there to oversee the long-term by sharing expertise with the medical staff in Pikangikum.
“But it is not just from us sharing as a service, but also the sharing that goes back. The cultural wisdom that our service will gain through these partnerships,” said Wall.
Pikangikum Chief Shirley Lynne Keeper expressed gratitude for the delivery of the ambulances, as well as the "rapid and unprecedented response" to the community's request for help.
“This event highlighted the exposure faced by remote First Nation communities and why our work in this area needs to be accelerated, especially here in Pikangikum,” said Keeper.
Wall advocated for better and faster medical services with the help of KDSB’s partnerships with rural and remote communities. However, he also addresses that it frustrated him to know that the two ambulances KDSB was able to provide were out-of-date equipment.
However, he acknowledged that he doesn’t want his statement to detract from the timely efforts by KDSB and their partners to get these surplus ambulances to Pikangikum.
“But at the end of the day, the community of Pikangikum got two used, very used, ambulances. And I think that where I struggle and we struggle as a service in that it is great to showcase this, but it would have been really good if they got two new ambulances," Wall said. "I think that’s the other piece that we need to get to as communities, and as a society. We shouldn’t be okay with First Nation communities in the far north to always get hand-me-downs or secondhand equipment.”
