MONTREAL — Paramedics serving Laval and Montreal are raising serious safety concerns over the new Computer-Aided Dispatch (CAD) system implemented by Urgences-santé. Frontline workers warn that continuous technical failures are increasing response times and potentially putting patients’ lives at risk.
The CAD system, which was rolled out in May of this year, has been plagued by persistent issues, including:
- Multiple ambulances being dispatched to the same emergency call.
- Frequent GPS failures making it impossible to accurately locate incident addresses.
- Instances of the entire system crashing.
Front-line personnel add that insufficient training and a difficult-to-use interface have further complicated their work. They emphasize that the cumulative effect of these problems is increasing service delays, leading to fears that patients are being endangered.
Urgences-santé management has acknowledged the initial difficulties, stating that such problems are expected during the rollout of a new system. Officials confirm they are continuing efforts to improve and optimize the CAD system, and maintain that, despite the technical issues, patient care has not been compromised.
