“The County of Essex declared a local emergency Monday following an alarming rise in the frequency and duration of Code Blacks, situations when there are no local ambulances available.

To ensure that the record is correct, instances of Code Black are calculated in minutes and totalled 491 minutes during the first two weeks of October compared to 116 minutes in all of September, 77 minutes in August and 31 minutes in July.

Warden Gary McNamara and I met Wednesday with Ontario Health Minister Sylvia Jones and local MPPs Andrew Dowie and Anthony Leardi. We had frank and fruitful discussions and we were all dedicated to pursuing long-term strategies to address these issues collaboratively involving all regional partners.

A Community Control Group of regional health care leaders and provincial representatives has been meeting regularly and is working on a multi-pronged strategy to address this crisis in the short and long term.

We will continue to keep the public informed as this emergency situation progresses.”

– Essex-Windsor EMS Chief Bruce Krauter