| Emergency Health Services (EHS) |
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| Established | 1994 |
| Headquarters | Halifax, Nova Scotia |
| Jurisdiction | Provincial |
| Employees | 900 |
| Ambulances | 150 ground, 1 rotary wing, 1 fixed wing |
| Website | http://www.gov.ns.ca/ehs/ |
Emergency Health Services (also EHS) is an agency of the Department of Health in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia.
All ground ambulance and air ambulance service in Nova Scotia is contracted by EHS to EMC Emergency Medical Care Inc., a subsidiary of Medavie EMS Inc. which is itself a subsidiary of Medavie Blue Cross.
EHS is responsible for administering Nova Scotia's pre-hospital emergency health services, which is delivered by EMC through 150 ground ambulances and their support facilities, one helicopter and one fixed-wing aircraft, and approximately 900 paramedics.
EHS owns all ground ambulances and support facilities which are operated under contract by EMC. Many ground ambulance support facilities are co-located with municipal fire stations in smaller rural communities, while having customized paramedic stations in larger centres. Every hospital in the province and many community health centres have helipads for LifeFlight air ambulance service.
EMC operates a central communications dispatch centre in Burnside Business Park in Dartmouth for coordinating emergency medical services across the province.
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Prior to 1995, Nova Scotia relied on approximately 50 private and public ambulance operators to provide emergency medical care; some were companies also involved in delivering funeral services. The level of medical care, staff qualifications and type and condition of ambulances and supplies varied throughout the province. Most medical air transportation was provided by the Canadian Forces' 413 Transport and Rescue Squadron operating out of CFB Summerside (1968-1990) and CFB Greenwood (1990-present). 413 Squadron used search and rescue aircraft such as the CH-113 Labrador helicopter as well as the CC-115 Buffalo and later the CC-130 Hercules fixed wing aircraft to deliver aid to the civil power missions.
In 1993, Cape Breton Island native Dr. Ron Stewart, who was instrumental in organizing emergency health services in southern California earlier in his career during the 1970s, was elected to the Nova Scotia House of Assembly and was appointed the Minister of Health. Dr. Stewart quickly commissioned several reports on health care reform, one of which was conducted by Mike Murphy, the director of emergency services at the Isaac Walton Killam Children's Hospital which offered a comprehensive evaluation on the state of the province's ambulances.
The recommendations of the Murphy Report were subsequently adopted and by 1994 the transformation of Nova Scotia's health care system began, with the provincial government taking over control of ground ambulance operations and consolidating it into a single entity called Emergency Health Services.
From 1994 until 1999 the contract for ground ambulance service for EHS had been placed with the Ambulance Operators Association of Nova Scotia (AOANS), which had originally represented the private services taken over by the provincial government. This contract with AOANS was not renewed and was instead awarded under a long-term performance based contract to EMC Emergency Medical Care Inc. (EMC), a subsidiary of Medavie EMS Inc. which is a holding company within the Medavie Blue Cross group of companies.
EHS delivers the following programs on behalf of the Nova Scotia Department of Health:
EHS leases 150 ambulances procured through Tri-Star Industries of Yarmouth, Nova Scotia. This fleet is procured by the Government of Nova Scotia and managed and operated under contract by EMC Emergency Medical Care Inc. There are 65 strategically located ambulance bases throughout the province, some of which are owned by EHS, others are rented by EMC (eg. volunteer fire departments). EMC operates a central communications dispatch centre in Burnside Business Park in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia for coordinating emergency medical services across the province.
EHS initiated air ambulance service for Nova Scotia in 1994 in partnership with CHC Helicopter Corporation (CHC) and the Shock Trauma Air Rescue Society (STARS). STARS operated the service until 2001 when it opted not to renew its agreement with EHS, citing philosophical diffences over management and fundraising. EHS operated air ambulance service directly under the new name "LifeFlight" and awarded a long-term operating contract for this service to EMC Emergency Medical Care Inc. in 2008.
The Atlantic Health Training and Simulation Centre is a training facility for emergency medical services personnel such as paramedics.
The medical first response program is a volunteer mostly rural program that trains people to give advanced first aid, including oxygen administration and early defibrillation, and provide relevant medical information to paramedics before they arrive. Dominated by the volunteer fire services, trained people are certified as Medical First Responders (MFR)'s.
The Trauma program is to facilitate optimal trauma care by providing education, research leadership in injury prevention and control and trauma system development.