On November 18, 2025, the staff and trainers at the Central East Prehospital Care Program aka Base Hospital (located at the Jerry Coughlan Health & Wellness Centre) welcomed the mayor and members of council from the City of Pickering, as well as CAO Marisa Carpino, Fire Chief Steve Boyd and Deputy Fire Chief Jason Yoshida.
It was their chance to give the City a big “thank you” for their latest donation that funded the purchase of four training manikins. The impact of this equipment will be felt throughout all of the City of Pickering as well as the Region of Durham whenever a residents has to dial “911”.
These life-size adult and paediatric manikins enable various advance life support training scenarios thanks to their realistic airways, CPR-capable chest and monitoring, as well as having two primary IV sites (hand & the front side of the elbow) that each have two vessels that allow for flow after cannulation, as well as a site to practice intraosseous placement (a procedure that involves inserting a needle directly into the spongy, inner part of a bone to establish a rapid and reliable vascular access route for fluids).
Using just an iPad, the trainers connect this model of manikin to a system that allows them to program a range of cardiac rhythms, airway situations, blood pressure and hemoglobin levels to create fully immersive scenarios.
The City of Pickering representatives were able to try out some of the scenarios themselves, becoming more aware of the strenuousness of providing CPR that our paramedics and firefighters (unfortunately) face on a regular basis.
By incorporating true-to-life training scenarios that represent the diversity of our community, the approximately 2,000 firefighter’s from 18 services and around 1,700 paramedics from six services (Durham, Haliburton, Kawartha Lakes, Peterborough, York and Northumberland) who come to our Base Hospital for training are even better equipped to care for our community.
To acknowledge the City’s support of as well as their generous donation to the work at Base Hospital, a plaque located in the main classroom was unveiled. It reads:
In recognition of the City of Pickering and its generous investment in the Central East Prehospital Care Program.
The municipality is committed to supporting timely, accessible, and high-quality health care services for the growing population of Pickering and the greater Durham Region.
As part of its strategic focus on improving quality of life for its residents, the Mayor and Councillors’ priority is to advocate for, and work with partners, to increase access to health care facilities and medical practitioners.
Click here to see more photos of the demonstrations.
