COMMUNITY SPOTLIGHT: Honouring our Paramedics

This is National Paramedic Services Week, when we thank these valuable first responders for all they do for our communities.

Travis Mellema, Chief of Lanark County Paramedic Service tells our Lynda D’Aoust we’re blessed to have a crew of incredibly dedicated people in the service.

He says many see it as a profession and a calling, not just a job. Mellema adds that they go through extensive training, because they never know what they may face when answering a call.

Training starts with two years in college and 400 hours of hands-on experience. He adds with that, comes a changes to the services they’ve delivered over the years. Paramedics no longer just pick someone up and drive them to the hospital as fast as they can.

That means they’ve become an extension of primary care and can do much more early intervention and upstream proactive care as a result.

You can listen to the complete chat between Lynda D’Aoust and Travis Mellema below.