And if you need to see how bad it gets when you stop traffic on a major highway such as this -- it caused issues with many ambulances and the fact that even an alternative trauma 1 center could not be accessed.
“He had some significant injuries, and the paramedics determined it would have been in his best interest to get directly to a Level 1 trauma center,’’ Partridge said in a telephone interview. “They were transporting him to Boston Medical Center when they diverted. That’s where he should have gone. But because of protesters shutting down the highway, they took him’’ to the Good Samaritan Stewart Medical Center in Brockton.
the Brockton hospital did not have a Level 1 trauma care center. He said South Shore Hospital in Weymouth does have a trauma center, but traffic was backed up to Route 24 in Brockton, snarling traffic on side roads, too.
Peter Racicot, senior vice president for Fallon Ambulance, said the delays also had an impact on his private ambulance service.
It took six minutes longer than usual for an emergency patient in Milton to be picked up in that town. The patient was safely transported to BIDMC-Milton Hospital for treatment, he said.
He said Fallon provides emergency service in some communities, but it is also heavily involved in transferring patients from hospitals to home or new treatment facilities.
The shutdown slowed down the company’s presponse across greater Boston Thursday, he said, noting that emergency rooms have a finite number of beds and if a patient is waiting to be taken elsewhere, the hospital has to wait before it can take the next patient.
When the protest had snarled traffic at its worse, Racicot said, the company had 25 ambulances on the road in Greater Boston, and all of them were affected in some way. As the delays dragged on, the number of ambulances affected rose to 100, he said.
“This incident has caused havoc for public safety,’’ Racicot said.
https://www.bostonglobe.com/2015/01/15/easton-ambulance-with-injured-driver-diverted-brockton-hospital-due-protestors-fire-chief-says/Uk1ffBGmC5OobFNPXNI6IJ/story.html